Losing It Emotionally...

At the church where I serve we are in the middle of a sermon series entitled “Mosaic: the gospel and race”. During this series, we are examining the issue of racism from the prism of the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel. During this series, our hope and our prayer as a church is to demonstrate that the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel provides the best explanation as to why racism exists and the best solution to the problem of racism.

This week, I would like for us to look at a section of a letter that is recorded in the New Testament of the Bible called the book of Revelation. Now for some of you, as soon as you read that we were going to look at a section of the book of Revelation, you started getting really excited. For some of you, as soon as you read that we were going to talk about the book of Revelation, you started getting out your maps and your charts. If I have just described you this morning, you are going to be very disappointed, because we are not going to be using any maps or charts. And we are not going to try to figure out which world leader could be the Antichrist.

However, it is in this section of the book of Revelation that we are going to look at this morning that we are going to discover another reason why racism is ridiculous when it is placed in the prism of the claims of Christ and the gospel. And it is in this section of this letter that we are going to discover another reason why the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel provide the solution to the universal problem of racism.

Now the Book of Revelation was written by a man named John, who was the disciple that Jesus loved.  John wrote the book of Revelation from the island of Patmos, where he had been exiled as a result of the persecution that was facing early followers of Jesus during the harsh reign of the Roman Emperor Domitian 90-96 A.D. The Book of Revelation was written to seven churches that were located in Asia Minor, or modern day Turkey, to reveal Jesus Christ as being large and in charge as the glorious raised from the dead Lord and Leader who will return again to defeat selfishness, sin and death and usher in the Kingdom of Heaven in its fullest sense.

The book of Revelation begins with John, as he was worshipping one Sunday morning on the island of Patmos, having a vision in which he saw Jesus, after He was raised from the dead, in the fullness of His glory. As John fell on his face in fear and worship of Jesus, Jesus reassured John and then began to give John the message that has been recorded and preserved for us in our Bibles today. Jesus began by commanding John to write letters to each of the seven churches in Asia Minor to address the current conditions of each church when it came to following the message and teachings of Jesus and engaging in the kingdom mission that they had been given by Jesus.

Then, in Revelation chapter four, the focus of this letter turned from the current situation of these seven churches, which represent seven types of churches that have existed throughout history and throughout the world, to what would happen at the end of God’s story here on earth. John is ushered into the throne room in Heaven where he saw God the Father seated on the throne, surrounded by angelic beings worshipping God. And it is in this context that we are going to jump into this section of the book of Revelation, beginning in Revelation 5:1-2. Let’s look at it together:

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?"

John begins this section of his letter by trying to explain what he was seeing in the presence of God the Father in the throne room of Heaven. John states that as he saw God the Father sitting on a throne in Heaven, in His right hand was a book written inside and on the back, sealed up with seven seals. Now when John refers to a book here, he is not referring to a bound book like we think in our culture today. Instead, the book was actually a scroll that contained writing on both sides. The writing on the scroll contained all of the judgments that will fall on humanity as a result of the selfishness and rebellion of humanity. These judgments on the selfishness and rebellion of humanity will occur during the seven years immediately before Jesus return, which is referred to as the Great Tribulation. In addition, John tells us that this scroll was sealed with wax in seven different places to keep it from opening.

Now a natural question that could arise here is “Well Dave, why did they need seven seals to keep the scroll shut? Why couldn’t they just use one seal?” That is a great question. You see, as a scroll was unrolled, each seal would keep the scroll from opening to the next section of information that was contained in the scroll. So, you opened the first seal, to see the first part of what that seal revealed. However, to see what was revealed on the second section of the scroll, you would need to break open the second seal. That way the information that was on the scroll would be revealed in a progressive manner instead of all at once.

This is a picture of the reality that God’s final judgment on the selfishness and rebellion will occur in progressive stages. In addition, the seals kept what was written on the scroll a secret. Also the only person that could open the scroll was a person who had the authority to break the seals of the scroll. You see, the source of this scroll was God the Father. God the Father was the author of this scroll and what was written on the scroll was only known to God the Father and would only be made known by a person who was authorized to break open the seals that kept the contents of the scroll secret.

That is why the strong angel asked the question that was asked in verse 2: "Who is worthy to open the book and to break its seals?" In other words, the angel is asking “Who has the power, the ability, and the authority to break the seals and open the scroll, so that God’s right and just judgment on the selfishness and rebellion of humanity can begin?” We see what happened next in verse 3-4:

 And no one in heaven or on the 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;

John explains that there was not a single being in the universe that had the power, the ability, and the authority to break the seals and open the scroll so as the reveal God’s right and just judgment to the selfishness and rebellion of humanity. And because of the reality, because of what John saw, John responded by weeping greatly. Now when John states that he was weeping greatly, this phrase, in the language that this letter was originally written in, refers to an unrestrained wailing and weeping.

In other words, John lost it emotionally. John lost all control of his emotions in expressing the hurt, grief, and sadness over the reality that there was no being in the universe who was worthy to approach God the Father and begin to open the scroll. Now a natural question that could arise here is “Well, why would John lose all control over his emotions just because no one could open the scroll. Why was this so big a deal that he would lose it emotionally?

You see, the reason why John lost all control of his emotions; the reason why John was wailing and weeping, was because he believed that God's plan was being delayed and derailed because there was no one who was worthy to open the scroll. John wailed because he saw the wrongdoing and injustice of the selfishness and rebellion of humanity and had placed his confident trust that there would be a day that God would rightly and justly deal with the wrongdoing and injustice of humanity.

And now, it seemed that God’s justice and judgment was being delayed and derailed. It seemed that God’s justice and judgment was being delayed and derailed because there was no being that had the power, the ability, and the authority to break the seals and open the scroll so as the reveal and unleash God’s right and just judgment to the selfishness and rebellion of humanity. And John was devastated to the point that he lost all control emotionally.

John was devastated until he heard something that was communicated to him. Tomorrow, we will look at what John heard…