Revelations Chapter 5 (Part I)

By Odon Bulamba (Friday 8th April 2005)

Revelation 5:1
Then I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a scroll with writing on both sides and sealed with seven seals.

John saw:
1. A human being sitting on the throne, he saw his appearance
2. What separated him from that human being
3. Something in that person’s hand, a little scroll

THE LITTLE SCROLL

The scroll was written on the inside and on the outside. What could this be? He saw also 7 seals. John could see what that man was holding despite the glory of God shining from the throne. Why didn’t God give that to the cherubim or to the 24 elders and tell them to keep it? By holding it he showed that no one could take it from his hand. If God holds your life, or protects your country … no one can take it from His hand.

And John was a bit curious. He wanted to know the content of the scroll.
Let’s think about it: if I roll a written sheet of paper, you can’t read it properly because it’s rolled. What you can read also depends how I hold it and whether the hand’s move.

The scroll holds the secret of the whole book of revelation, the secret of the writing of the Word of God. It was sealed because the purpose was destroyed. It was God’s plan for human beings lives.

God’s plan:
1. At first, I’ll create a human being that looks like me.
2. The human being must live a safe life and be placed where they will be completely happy; God put him in the Garden
3 In the Garden, something went wrong. Although man was given the ability to rule the world, to control everything under the sun, he didn’t trust in God
4. God hadn’t finished with His plan. But what will He do now? He will wait until human being comes back to him so that He could fulfil His plan.

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?”

The little scroll (verse 2) was sealed, so nobody could open it.
“Who is able to break the seal so that we can know what is in it?”
And in heaven, everybody kept quiet, even the pure angels, no one was able to.

Many people on earth can easily judge God and say that He is unjust, not righteous, they wonder how can God let a Christian suffer for 20 years but God answers us every day: “If I have something in my hand, who will be able to take it from me? I’ve got peace, joy, and everything you need, but who is able to come and get it from me?”

No one in the heaven, on earth and even under the earth could take the scroll from God’s hand and John started to cry, a lot and loudly. Why did he cry for something that will happen in a remote future, in 2000 years, something that even didn’t involve him? John had already seen monsters and dragons worse than in nightmares and he didn’t cry but when he saw that small scroll and understood than nobody could unseal it, he cried, why? He cried because he had pity for what will happen to tomorrow’s world.

Someone asked him to stop crying, in the Kingdom of God there is no crying, our tears are (will) be wiped. He was told that this is not a time for crying but a time to discover God’s glory.

Revelation 4:5
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.

Genesis 49: 10
This is what Jacob said about Judah: “the scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until it comes to who it belongs and the obedience of the nations is his.”

That was a prophecy from the beginning and its fulfilment is at the end of the Bible.
The people of the tribe of Judah were waiting for that king to come: a king that will reign forever. They thought it was David, or someone else, but it wasn’t.
It is written that King will not be a regular king but will be: ‘the Lion of Judah”.
Remember that one of the cherubim looked like a lion and we will understand why.

Judah means praise. So he will come as the Lion of praise and the lion of praise will come with a scepter and that scepter will lead the world. Shame to the Christians who don’t give praise to God!


DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THANKING GOD AND PRAISING HIM

Praising: give His best qualities, tell how great He is.
Thanking God: thanks for this or that.

We can easily forget to praise God, what we normally do is thank Him.

Thank you, God because we are alive
Thank you God because you give us life
Thank you God because you feed us
Thank you God because you healed the people among us

We need to give glory to the Lion of the tribe of Judah. He needs it.
How many times a day do you glorify God?
Normally we only praise Him when we avoid a car accident: Thank you God because you protected me. But do you really praise him? When I eat: Thank you God because the dentist hasn’t removed any of my teeth. God you are so powerful, I can use my teeth.

This is why the Bible gives you all God’s powerful names so that you can glorify Him. If you don’t know how to praise Him, read your Bible, find all the great things God did and glorify Him.

JESUS IS A DESCENDANT OF THE KING DAVID

Although Jesus was God, he made himself a descendant of a human being, so that we can also find He looks like us. David was a human being like us, he was weak. So, if you are weak, if you are tempted, don’t be discouraged, remember the King of kings belongs to your lineage. Don’t feel ashamed for having been a Christian for 10 years and not praying well enough, otherwise you’ll give up. Better to make an effort and a step forward!

Blessed are the weak that recognise their weaknesses because God really takes care of them. If there is a danger, cry out to God, complain a little bit. He knows everything about you so he will transfer you to a safer place. The story of Jesus coming through the lineage of David is in 2 Samuel 9: 12-13


He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.

No creatures in the heaven could unseal the scroll because there were no human beings. The plan was for human beings only. That’s why Jesus came down, put on our body so that he could fulfil all the characteristics of a human being. Jesus went through our flesh and as a sign, John could see blood on his body. This lamb was slaughtered but John saw it alive.

He came to show us how much He cares for God’s plan to be fulfilled in human beings lives. Jesus’ last words were: “Everything is fulfilled”. “So whatever stopped these people not to come to your Kingdom, it is fulfilled”. Jesus paid the price. It’s finished. This is why the scroll can now be opened and God’s plan can be completed.
This is the secret of that passage.

Jesus says: “Here I am. I’m alive and whoever will believe in me, although he’ll be slaughtered, or killed, they can keep hope they will live again. John saw me crucified but he can see me alive.”

The blood on the lamb is the sign of grace and repentance, and God sees it and forgives the world and sets it free. That’s why we are completely free in Jesus-Christ. So he was given that scroll and the next step was to open it.


HE HAD SEVEN HORNS

Then John saw a lamb with 7 horns.
Horn means power. God, our God is powerful.
Number seven in the Bible means perfection.
So we can say that our perfect Lord is powerful.