When you think about it all the wealth and worldly goods you possess doesn't mean anything to anyone until we die. That is when it becomes valuable to those who are hoping that they might get some of what you acquired in your living trust or last will and testament. Those documents are worthless until you die and they become empowered by your death in order to make them valid. It's good to have, and means only something to you while you are still alive.
It's like that with the New Testament, it became empowered by Jesus the moment of his death and subsequent resurrection. When Jesus said, "It is finished," what did He mean? The moment He died, his death empowered the total fulfillment and totality of God's absolute Word. His Word would be nothing without His death. The moment He died, the Will was empowered and you and I are blessed. He fulfilled all the Old Testament prophecies and requirements. The mathematical odds 10 to the 26th power for just 8 prophecies being fulfilled to the letter as discovered by the University of Texas. That's 10 with 26 zeroes after that. That was only 8 prophecies being fulfilled. Jesus fulfilled over 600 of them. It comes down to an infinite number when you factor that in. He is God. How can you not believe that?!!
Most people don't believe in God, because they are angry at the way things are going, that there is evil in the world. It's not that they don't believe in God, they simply don't understand why things happen the way they do and why it feels at times that evil prevails because if they had it their way, they would certainly change things about the course of the way the world is going. This chapter in Revelation answers that age old question. You want to know why there is evil in the world? (1) Because this is not the world God intended. This world and the Garden of Eden was sold, so to speak, or relinquished to the hand of Satan the Bible tells us. Adam and Eve lived in perfection. They rebelled against God and in doing so, in their rebellion, Satan took possession of the earth. Satan has been in control of this world, did you know that? The Bible says, "He is the prince of the power of the air." Of the atmosphere of this world, Satan. The Bible calls Satan, the god of this age. Satan is in control! When there is a death, murder or robbery, or an illness or sickness that is claiming the lives of a child somewhere, who does that? It comes from the fall! You want to blame someone rather than criticize, than turn your righteous indignation against Satan. It's his fault.
What does this have to do with anything? It's all about redemption and this scroll is none other than the title deed to the earth. It is a will like that of a Roman will, sealed with seven seals. That authorized agent to open it had to meet all the requirements and demands to fulfill the things written that each seal unfurled. That's very important. By Himself, Jesus Christ is God's authorized agent.
We have in historical museums, the wills of several Roman emperors each of them have been sealed seven times. The seven seals meaning, (1) indicated that the will had been completed by its author, (2) that the will could only be opened by an authorized agent, (3) that the will had specific "requirements of performance" that must be fulfilled, and (4) that the fulfillment of those performance, had to be done by someone who met those qualifications and/or by the author of the will himself (who would have already been dead, a little catch there.)
1 Corinthians 11:25 ~ "In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me."
Jesus is now saying that I am in the process of buying back the world, from its fallen condition and I am going to do it in my blood. I will empower the redemption of this world by my blood. You might think this is boring and that you already know all of this. Well then you should be the most outrageous worshiper in any church because of that truth. He redeemed us, Jesus has done it if you are a believer in Him.
Hebrews 9:15-17 ~ "For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance - now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant. In the case of a will, it is necessary to prove the death of the one who made it, because a will is in force only when somebody has died; it never takes effect while the one who made it is living."
Sounds like a lawyer wrote this huh? The scroll is a legal document, the seven seals are seven requirements... so then, for what reason, is our question...why? Some say it's the New Testament, others it is the will of God, still others, that it is the Counsel of God to man...the scroll is the Title Deed to Planet Earth. The unfolding of the seals takes up most of the Book of Revelation. The unfolding of that will, the scroll, written on the inside and on the back, of this one scroll. This means that all the requirements have been met, there is no room for anything further. It's complete, that is what is meant when it says it was written on inside and out. Been there, done that. There is a problem in all of this however, there is still someone who has to meet all the requirements.
Whatever is done here in order to get the world back to the possession of God, all of those requirements are complete, now it's time to enact it.
Revelation 11:15 ~ "The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven which said: "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever."
Did you get that? "Now they have become." Didn't God make the world and all there is? Yes, but it was delivered by Adam into the hands of Satan. Not only did Jesus redeem us from our lost condition, but His redemptive powers go to this world and the cosmos. He's buying it back. According to John, from his vantage point, it's done. It's finished.
2 Corinthians 4:3-4 ~ "And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God."
Ephesians 2:2 ~ "In which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient."
If this is hard for you to understand maybe this might help. Remember when Jesus came to the earth in the form of a man and went into the wilderness for 40 days and who came and tempted Him? The Bible says that Satan came and tempted Him. Now Jesus has no sin nature. But the temptations were true none the less. They were real temptations. He had to resist them. He laid aside certain mechanics of his deity as God, all of His powers and all of His knowledge, but certainly within reach, He didn't pick them up in his humanity, it's called "Kenosis." He could of picked them up at anytime, but He didn't. He humbled Himself and Satan tempted Him, when Jesus became thirsty, He felt it like you or I would. He got tired, He had to contend with the same things you and I do.
So when Satan came to tempt Jesus, one of those temptations was this...
Matthew 4:8-9 ~ "Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of he world and their splendor. "All of this I will give you," he said, "if you will bow down and worship me."
Was that a valid temptation? Yup! Did Jesus do it? Thank God, No! Did Satan have the power to tempt Jesus with that temptation? Yes, by the way, there is one coming who Satan will offer this deal one more time to. We don't know his name, but he goes by the title of the Antichrist. Satan is going to tell him if you bow down and worship me, all of these kingdoms will be yours. And he is going to do it. Pretty amazing! By Himself alone, He became the performance.
Revelation 5:2 ~And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming in a loud voice, "Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll?"
Can you imagine the sound of this angels voice? He is referenced as mighty. There must have been silence in heaven when he posed this question. Angels looked at one another, redeemed hosts looked around, everyone looks at one another, John certainly observes the situation and there is a catastrophe in his heart. This redemption by Jesus means that He has done what no man can.
Revelation 5:3-4 ~ "But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside it. I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside."
No one was worthy to take the scroll and look at it. John is weeping because there isn't anyone to be found who could open it. People might say they have a problem with that statement because they believe there are no tears in heaven. Wait that is coming. As John is viewing this in both heaven and the need upon the earth for this deliverance, Why is he weeping? Because no one was found worthy to redeem man and the world out of its lost condition, no one can do it, there is no salvation any other way. No one has cried like this, over the lost soul of someone. Then John realizes that salvation can only be found in God alone. No one is worthy. Listen to the answer. Redemption in Jesus Christ, is that He has meet all the requirements by being faithful to the commitment to save.
Revelation 5:5-7 ~ "Then one of the elders said to me, "Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals." Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. He had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. He came and took the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne."
The elder commanded him to stop crying. Not in a harsh way. It's strong but tender. God calls us His children because we are not supposed to worry. Much like a little child. They live for the here and now. They are supposed to worry about things. The elder turns to John and tells him, "Stop it, it's not over yet." It's not over until the fat angel is going to sing, and he's going to sing! Read Genesis 49: 1-11. Write that in your Bible next to Revelation 5:5! This is what this elder is referring John to! Shiloh is one of Jesus' names!
This is referring to the Tribulation period where it describes Jesus robe in Genesis 49:11 and His judgement found in Isaiah 61-63. Who is worthy? Jesus! The Lion of the tribe of Judah. How in the world can Jesus who the Lion of the tribe of Judah, be the Root of David, when David was born before Jesus? If you have kids, you are the root of your children! In other words, they came from you. You are a branch and they might be a leaf. You are a branch, because if you are alive today, you had a mom and a dad. That make them further up the trunk. But your grandfather is further down the trunk until somewhere in that genealogy you get back down to the dirt and the roots. How can Jesus who was born 2000 years ago be the root of David when David is older than Jesus? The answer is that David is not older than Jesus! Jesus has always existed! The Bible tells us this and the Scriptures challenge us with this.
Matthew 1:1 ~ "A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham."
Matthew 9:27 ~ "As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, calling out, "Have mercy on us, Son of David!"
Jesus came forth from David's lions, from David's DNA, but watch what happens.
Matthew 22:41-46 ~ "While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, "What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?" "The son of David," they replied. He said to them, "How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him Lord? For he says, 'The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.' "If then David calls him 'Lord,' how can he be his son?" No one could say a word in reply, and from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions."
The Father is always greater than the son, unless the Son is God from all time and eternity and came into this world. The Bible tells us that Jesus pre-existed. He is the eternal one. He draped Himself with human skin. That is why He is THE Root of David. David ain't got no roots without Jesus. He has no lineage without Jesus like Abraham. He declared Himself to be God. They couldn't handle the truth and thus the reason why the teachers of law wanted to stone him.
More to follow tomorrow!!! Hope you'll join me!
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