The opening of the sealed scroll
(REV. 5:5-14)
Art used by permission by Pat Marvenko Smith, copyright 1992
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THE REVELATION OF
JESUS CHRIST

Chapters 4 & 5

A Bible Study

Rev 4:1 - After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven, and the first voice which I had heard, like {the sound} of a trumpet speaking with me, said, "Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things." "Revelation 4 and 5 are one vision showing us (1) the scroll which becoming unsealed reveals the unfolding judgments of Revelation and (2) the Savior who, being the One unsealing the scroll, is revealed as the Lord and King of Revelation. [2] Compare Revelation 4 and 5 with Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14. Most pre-tribulation rapture adherents say this verse represents the rapture of the church. However, whether this is only opinion or fact remsins to be seen. If those who believe in the pre-trib rapture are still on earth when the antichrist makes his scheduled appearance, then obviously they are wrong about Rev. 4:1. Personally, this writer hopes they are right - but I must admit that I am not sure, and I will not spend time here going into the various arguments. The two main positions involved are pre-trib and post-trib/pre-wrath. There is also the mid-tribbers, but they appear to have the weakest arguments. The antichrist is said to appear at "mid-trib," but the "great tribulation" referred to by the Lord Jesus (Matt. 24:21) does not begin till the antichrist makes his appearance.

R. C. Sproul has an interesting perspective concerning the return of Jesus Christ and the rapture:

"There is nothing in Scripture that says the purpose of Christ's return will involve 'taking us away someplace' for a period of time. That is a constructed hypothesis read into various passages of the New Testament. It's a misunderstanding of the plain and simple meaning of the imagery that is used. The imagery used in reference to the second coming of Christ repeatedly reflects conquest and retun from conquest. In the culture of the day, particularely of the Roman armies, what happened when a Roman general returned from a military campaign of strategic importance? What does he do when he returns? Does he just march into his city with his troops and spoils of war? No, he does not. He camps outside the town and sends his messenger into the Imperial Palace where Caesar is notified of the victory. Then the general waits for the city to prepare for the triumphal entry, which Rome made a big deal of. Meanwhile the soldiers with their booty and captives were camped outside the city. Finally when everything was prepared - the triumphal arch through which the victorious army was to pass was constructed especially for the occasion, incense was sprayed and garlands of flowers were spread around - the signal was given: a trumpet blast. Then first the citizens of Rome were given the right to go out and meet the victorious general and march in his procession, participating in his glory, and they would march with the armies coming into the city through the arch because the victory was considered as a victory for the people of Rome - not just for the Caesar or the general or the armies that represented Rome. So it is with the imagery of the New Testament from Paul, who frequently suggests this kind of occasion. The imagery is true of the second coming - the trumpet blast heralds the King coming in glory and in triumph and His people go up in the air to meet Him. Why? To leave? No, to participate in the eschatological promise we have from the beginning of the Old Testament - to participate in the victory of the Messiah, to march with Him in His triumphal entry - not this time on the back of a donkey, but now coming in glory and power and honor and coming with His people, His saints. The notion of 'going to meet" is to meet someone who is arriving for a joyous, triumphant return - and to walk in with them. When Christ returns, His people are going to participate in that magnificent moment of redemptive history when His glory and power (which has been hidden from those who perish in this world) will be made manifestly obvious. Those who are enduring tribulation with Christ who are buried with Him in baptism to participate in His humiliation and death will now participate in His exaltation and His glory." [2]

Rev 4:5-7 - And from the throne proceed flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder. And there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God; and before the throne there was, as it were, a sea of glass like crystal; and in the center and around the throne, four living creatures full of eyes in front and behind. And the first creature was like a lion, and the second creature like a calf, and the third creature had a face like that of a man, and the fourth creature was like a flying eagle.

"Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come."

Rev 4:9-11 - And when the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, to Him who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders will fall down before Him who sits on the throne, and will worship Him who lives forever and ever, and will cast their crowns before the throne, saying, "Worthy art Thou, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for Thou didst create all things, and because of Thy will they existed, and were created."

Rev 5:1-4 - And 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 the earth, or under the earth, was able to open the book, or to look into it. And I began to weep greatly, because no one was found worthy to open the book, or to look into it."
The 24 elders had praised the eternal, almighty holy God for what He had created. But there had been rebellion in His creation, both in heaven and on earth. John now saw that God had in His right hand a scroll that evidently contained God's plan for redeeming His creation. Hanging in the balance were the questions of who would control the earth, would history come to the final consummation God had planned for it, would righteousness prevail, etc. But if no one could be found who was worthy to open the scroll, then all would be lost, all would be in vain. It would be a job "half-done" ending in despair and futility. So John weeps greatly.

"For all that John saw and heard, the proclamation may have been sounding long. But the time had come, when, if a competent Redeemer was to be found, he should come forward and exercise his right. The way was open before; but, no one having appeared until now, the great, universal, final call is made, that, if anyone is worthy, he should now exercise his power.

"The result of the call was, that 'no one was able, in the heaven, nor on the earth, nor under the earth, to open the book, nor even to look upon it.' Angels shrunk back from it as beyond their qualifications. heavenly principalities and powers stood mute and downcast as they surveyed the requirements for the work. And yet, it would seem as if somewhere there had been efforts making to achieve it. And what, indeed, have been all the endeavors of unsanctified people, in politics, in science, and in all the arts of civilization, improvement, philosophy, and even religion, but to work out this problem of successful repossession of what was lost in Adam, to attain to that forfeited perfection and supreme good which has ever danced before their imaginations. What, indeed, has been the spring of the activity of the under world, in these ages of seductive effort with mortals, but to persuade people that they can make good the lying promise, 'Ye shall be as God,' and in spite of the Almighty, and without Him, to realize through human expansion and demoniacal guidance, the dream of a better destiny for the world and the race.

"It has also been in the plan of God so far, to drop the reins to His rebellious creatures, to permit the experiment to be carried to its utmost, and to give scope for its most conspicuous failure at the last. Varied, and many, and complicated, have been the attempts, all of which, as they always must, have resulted in disastrous failure. Egypt attempted to play the redeemer for the world, and cringed to the bloodiest tyrannies, bowed to the worship of the basest of creatures, and went down in ignominious ruin. Babylon tried it, and became the world's great symbol of all that is blasphemous in power, impure in life, besotted in affection, and terrible in desolation. Greece tried it, and only consummated her destruction in the marriage of the intellect of heaven with the vices of hell. Rome tried it, and became the iron arm which threshed the world in blood, and then dissolved in the putrefaction which itself had worked. The spirit of liberty, democratic confederation, and universal communism and enlightenment, uniting largely with elements of infernal origin, is now trying it, and will perpetuate its efforts to the most gigantic and bewitching consummation that the world shall ever have seen, but only to work out the most dreadful failure that has yet occurred. For, as in heaven, so on earth, and under the earth, the ultimate record will be, what is here written: 'no one was able to open the book, nor even to look upon it.' The lost estate of man, by man, or angel, or spirits of the under world, can never be recovered.

"It is a sad and melancholy contemplation. heaven, itself, seems to grow silent and breathless under it. And the tender and loving heart of John overflows as the picture opens before him. 'I was weeping much, because no one was found worthy to open the book, nor even to look upon it.'

"Some speak of these tears as mere tears of disappointed curiosity. This, indeed, is the common explanation. We are told that the book had unknown revelations in it, which John was very impatient to understand; and that his much weeping was caused by the prospect of having his personal desire to obtain a knowledge of the future, ungratified. Poor John! What a silly mortal, to be troubling himself about unrevealed prophecy, and to keep up this crying in heaven because there was no one to open the book for him! The thing is absurd. It is beneath criticism. And if we cannot get through our interpretations without such left-handed compliments to the 'natural emotion' of people 'in the Spirit,'it seems to me that it would be the part of fairness and honor to confess frankly that the subject is BEYOND our comprehension. I am very certain that if John had looked upon these solemn and mighty transactions as some of his commentators have represented them, we would not only never have heard of these tears, but they never would have been shed.

"What a picture of inspiration, that it should thus strip a venerable and disciplined servant of God of all manly dignity, and make of him a silly and peevish child! No, no; John knew by that Spirit in which he was, what that sealed book meant. He knew that if no one was found worthy and able to take it from the hand of God, and to break its seals, that all the promises of the prophets, and all the hopes of the saints, and all the preintimations of a redeemed world, must fail. He understood the office of the (Redeemer), and that if there was failure at this point, 'the redemption of the purchased possession'(Eph 1:14) must fail. Could it be possible that this should be? Had he all this while been hoping, and preaching, and prophesying what should, after all, not be accomplished? Was the promised inheritance, now at the ripened moment for its recovery, to go by default into eternal alienation?

"How could he bear the thought? Yet such were some of the suggestions of this interval of blankness and awful pause in heaven. And in this view of the case, well might an earnest prophet weep without damage to his meekness or his honor. But in this chief mourner over the unopened book, we may see the state of the Church up to that time - a widowhood household, weeping before the Lord over the spoliation of its inheritance. Do not His own elect 'cry day and night unto Him,' to avenge them in this particular? Do not the sons of the bride-chamber continually weep and fast because the Bridegroom is taken from them, and His house oppressed by the children of the alien? That book, unlifted and unopened, is the Church's grief and distress. It bespeaks the inheritance unredeemed - the children still estranged from their purchased possession. But that book opened, is the Church's joy and glory. It is the assertion of her reinstatement into what Adam lost - the recovery to her of all of which she has been so long and cruelly deprived by sin. Until, therefore, that book is opened, and its seals broken, the people of God must remain in privation, sorrow, and tears.

"But, 'blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.' Such anxious and tearful longing for the 'better country' and the ransomed inheritance, is noticed in heaven, and has many precious assurances from thence. One of the elders said unto John: 'Weep not; behold the Lion from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, overcame to open the book and its seven seals.' And this is what the Church has been hearing from her elders, and prophets, and apostles, and ministers, in all the ages. It is the very essence of the Gospel, which has been sounding ever since the promise in Eden, that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head. It is what all the ancient types prefigured, what the songs of the prophets foretold, and what the first Christians and their successors went heralding over all the earth. It has been the only comfort of God's children in all these ages of their disinheritance, a comfort which has cheered their pilgrim steps through life, illumined their passage to the grave, and will be the joy of their souls as they stand waiting in heaven for the consummating victory of Him who has thus far been so uniformly triumphant on so many trying fields.

Jesus is the Lion sprung from Judah. He is this Root of David - the foundation on which the Davidic hopes repose. He overcame, in the trials of life, in the temptations in the wilderness, in the agonies of the garden, in the terrors of death, and in the bonds of the grave. He hath gone up, leading captivity captive. He is Victor now over law, and sin, and death, and hell. He hath paid the redemption price of the forfeited inheritance. He is the true Redeemer, who, having so far triumphed and been accepted, will also prove ready and worthy to complete His work, by lifting those long-standing deeds of forfeiture, and breaking their debarring seals. Such is our faith, and hope, and comfort, here reconfirmed to us from heaven. And what we find in the further particulars of this vision, is simply the picture of its accomplishment." [3]

Rev 5:5-7 - 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 He took it out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne.What would John have expected to see after being told that the "Lion" had overcome? A regal figure advancing impressively to the throne? Yes, Jesus is indeed "the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah," but interestingly this is the only place in Revelation which refers to Him by that term. The remainder of Revelation refers to Him in each instance as the Lamb. John sees Him now coming into the presence of the Father after having just accomplished redemption on the earth, bloodied but strong in the victory He had accomplished.

Rev 5:8-10 - "And when He had taken the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, having each one a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying, "Worthy art Thou to take the book, and to break its seals; for Thou wast slain, and didst purchase for God with Thy blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. And Thou hast made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth."

Isa 59:15-17 - The LORD looked and was displeased that there was no justice. He saw that there was no one, he was appalled that there was no one to intervene; so his own arm worked salvation for him, and his own righteousness sustained him. He put on righteousness as his breastplate, and the helmet of salvation on his head; he put on the garments of vengeance and wrapped himself in zeal as in a cloak.

Rev 5:11-14 - And I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing." And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, "To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever." And the four living creatures kept saying, "Amen." And the elders fell down and worshiped.

[1] Marvin J. Rosenthal - Zion's Fire/March-April 1999 - p. 4
[2] R. C. Sproul - Ligonier Ministries
[3] Rev. 5:1-5 The Apocalypse: Exposition of the Book of Revelation, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1998 by Biblesoft
[4] Jack Hayford - Living Way Ministries

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