Our Pet Lamb
Revelation 7:9-17 After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. 10 And they cried out in a loud voice: "Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb." 11 All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying: "Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen!" 13 Then one of the elders asked me, "These in white robes-- who are they, and where did they come from?" 14 I answered, "Sir, you know." And he said, "These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 15 Therefore, "they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them. 16 Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. 17 For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."
Our Pet Lamb
An estimated 63% of American households have a pet (according to the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association). So chances are pretty good that your life has been touched by an animal. Perhaps it was a childhood pet. Maybe it was your pet turtle who helped you come out of your shell and interact with people to tell them about your unusual pet. Maybe it was your cat who taught you to land on your feet. Or it was your bunny who helped you develop a knack for tender, loving care.
Adults are also helped tremendously by pets. With Animal Assisted Therapy a dog can help an accident victim improve wheelchair skills or a bird can help a stroke victim regain vocal strength and improve vocabulary. Many of the elderly have a pet dog or cat to help keep them from suffering from loneliness. I know a number of couples who got a pet to fill the void when they had a miscarriage.
The Bible’s number one choice for comparing Jesus to an animal is a Lamb. Not just any lamb, either, but our precious pet Lamb who is our constant companion, runs out to greet us, snuggles up to us in our sadness, protects us from danger. He most importantly frees us from our past and welcomes us into His future.
There is a Christian poem that has replaced the old, familiar “Mary Had a
Little Lamb.” It goes like this:
Mary had the little Lamb, who lived before His birth;
Self-existent Son of God, from Heaven He came to Earth. Micah 5:2
Mary had the little Lamb; see Him in yonder stall –
Virgin-born Son of God, to save man from the Fall. Isaiah 7:14
Mary had the little Lamb, obedient Son of God;
Everywhere the Father led, His feet were sure to trod. John 6:38
Mary had the little Lamb, crucified on the tree
The rejected Son of God, He died to set men free. 1 Peter 1:18
Mary had the little Lamb -- men placed Him in the grave,
Thinking they were done with Him; to death He was no slave! Matthew 28:6
Mary had the little Lamb, ascended now is He;
All work on Earth is ended, our Advocate to be. Hebrews 4:14-16
Mary had the little Lamb -- mystery to behold!
From the Lamb of Calvary, a Lion will unfold. Revelation 5: 5,6
When the Day Star comes again, of this be very sure:
It won't be Lamb-like silence, but with the Lion's roar. Psalm 2:12; Revelation 19:11-16
The parents stood over the hole in the backyard with their two young children and some neighborhood kids. Dad lowered the airtight Rubbermaid container into the ten gallon grave. Through streaming tears, each of the family members eulogized Ninja, their cat, who had been run over by a car. The death of a pet can really hurt. Especially the indiscriminate and unnecessary death of a pet like being hit by a car or eating pet food laced with rat poison.
The Bible reacts much differently to the death of our Lamb, however. Not with regret but with relief. We cry when our pet is hurt. One of the worst days of our lives is to take our dog to the vet to be put to sleep. Yet we celebrate every year the death of our pet Lamb. It pains us to know the pain our Lamb went through – stricken, smitten, afflicted, led like a sheep before his shearers, yet he remained silent. Yet we also rejoice that by His wounds we have been healed. (Isaiah 53:4-7) It’s not that our Lamb’s kidneys were failing and He needed to be put to sleep so that we’re relieved He’s free from pain. What relieves us is that our Lamb did experience pain. Lots of pain. Our pain. Our neighbor’s pain. The whole world’s pain. And we know pain, don’t we?
For one moment John looks into this world – the Church Militant, the Church at war – and he sees our suffering and struggling. We are beaten, bruised and battered. We are a minority battling against sin and evil. We are down, doubting and depressed. We are filthy, foul-mouthed failures. Then in the next moment John sees the world to come, the Church Triumphant. He sees this great multitude all in white, wearing their white baptismal gowns, covered in the seamless robes of Christ’s righteousness. They’re waving palm branches, the way the Israelites did every year at the Feast of Tabernacles when they marched around the temple grounds. Waving palm branches to signify God’s victory and their homecoming. A perpetual Palm Sunday.
Jesus gives John the Revelation that His saints will eventually escape the pain and death of this world to a paradise of victory and homecoming. The elder explains that the glorified believers are those “who are coming out of the great tribulation.” Note, present tense, not past tense the way the NIV translates it. One by one, as believers die, they escape the pain of this world and their souls enter the bliss of heaven, though their bodies remain in the grave until the bodily resurrection on Judgment Day.
The great tribulation is no a seven-year catastrophe or a climatic surge of evil in the last few hours before Jesus returns on Judgment Day as false teachers preach. The great tribulation is now. It is here in Racine. It’s in your home. In your heart. In your relationships. In your behavior. In your mouth. In your mind. In your memory. It’s pain. The pain of guilt recognizing that you have hurt the ones you love. The pain of realizing you have failed Jesus. The pain of regret wishing you could take back those hurtful words, that moment of weakness, and that impulsive purchase. The pain of worry dreading a head-on collision with tomorrow. It’s the pain of being hurt by others. This world is filled with hurt and pain. Our lives are filled with hurt and pain. But our Lamb once said, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)
The Lamb knows our pain and He offers you a cure. He has prepared the medicine to overcome the pain caused by sin and death. It the medicine of His love and forgiveness contained in the capsules of water and Word, of bread and wine, of the written, spoken and sung Word of God. It is the medicine that is poison for death and the devil.
Guilt, regret, hurt and pain are all overcome in our lives by the death of our pet Lamb, Jesus Christ. “These are they who are coming out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” Our precious pet has suffered and bled and died and been buried. It is the blood of the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. It is the blood of the Lamb that takes sinners and makes them saints. It is the blood of the Lamb that washes us clean in Holy Baptism and gives us a new identity as brothers and sisters in Christ. It is the blood of the Lamb that we taste and drink in Holy Communion that strengthens us against the assaults of the Evil One. And so in Christ we are no what we were not before – saints. It may sound bold to call ourselves sainted ones, yet that is who we are – not based on what we do, but based upon what our sacrificial Lamb has done for us, and given to us.
While on a guided tour of the holy land a group of passengers on a bus had been told again and again by their guide that shepherds never drive the sheep like cattle but always walk in front, leading them. As the bus came around a curve they looked out the window and saw a flock of sheep being driven by a man yelling at them from behind. A few muffled chuckles perturbed the tour guide enough to stop the bus, get out, and investigate by means of an extended conversation with the man. The guide returned to the bus with a smile of triumph on his face as he announced to the tourists, “He’s not their shepherd, he’s their butcher.”
Our pet Lamb was driven to the cross to be butchered by the sentence of our guilt and death, which he accepted as a willing sacrifice. Three days later he rose from the dead in his glorified body to show the world he had conquered sin and death, had opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers, and the victim had become the victor! With the same kind of transformation this section of Revelation switches metaphors so that Jesus our Lamb becomes Jesus our Shepherd – one moment led to the slaughter, the next moment leading us to eternal life. John describes this from his vision of believers enjoying heavenly bliss, “The Lamb at the center of the throne will be their Shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water.”
Ever since his bodily resurrection our Lamb is not on a cross but on a throne. Once the victim now the victor, ruling over sin and death by his resurrection power. With this power he leads us, his helpless sheep, to the waters of eternal life. In ten statements (the number ten indicates completeness and perfection, like getting a score of ten from a panel of judges) John paints for us the picture of heavenly perfection for believers in eternal life:
“Before the throne of God” – the best part of heaven is God’s approachability and his nearness to us.
And it’s not boring monotony, either, but believers in heaven “serve him day and night in his temple” with the very bodies we have now, perfected in glory, and the very skills we have now, but no mistakes.
“He who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them,” means that the ruler of all shares his space with us.
And at this heavenly feast we will never again hunger or thirst, and the sun will not beat down on us like it can do in the Middle East with its scorching heat, relentlessly burning its discomfort and pain into a person’s being, indicating that all the effects of sin, all its discomforts and evils, will never touch us again; nothing will be able to frustrate our eternal bliss.
After the 8th and 9th statements rejoice in the Lamb becoming the Shepherd and leading us to springs of living water, the perfect picture concludes, “and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” God’s gentle touch transforms the water of pain-filled tears into the always fresh spring waters of constantly flowing, eternal life.
You might be surprised that some animals known for their ability to hurt people are helping people. Scorpion venom kills cancerous cells, poison dart frog secretions can bring people out of cardiac arrest, and viper venom is a common ingredient in treating high blood pressure. God’s anger at sin is poisonous enough to punish anyone with painful torture now and a fatal sentence to hell forever. That same God became our pet Lamb, suffered the poison in our place, and then rose victoriously from the dead to win eternal life for us. We now live a fully forgiven life today and look forward to a constantly fulfilling eternal life in heaven. The Lamb is now the Shepherd. The victim is the victor. He lives, and so do we!
Our Pet Lamb
An estimated 63% of American households have a pet (according to the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association). So chances are pretty good that your life has been touched by an animal. Perhaps it was a childhood pet. Maybe it was your pet turtle who helped you come out of your shell and interact with people to tell them about your unusual pet. Maybe it was your cat who taught you to land on your feet. Or it was your bunny who helped you develop a knack for tender, loving care.
Adults are also helped tremendously by pets. With Animal Assisted Therapy a dog can help an accident victim improve wheelchair skills or a bird can help a stroke victim regain vocal strength and improve vocabulary. Many of the elderly have a pet dog or cat to help keep them from suffering from loneliness. I know a number of couples who got a pet to fill the void when they had a miscarriage.
The Bible’s number one choice for comparing Jesus to an animal is a Lamb. Not just any lamb, either, but our precious pet Lamb who is our constant companion, runs out to greet us, snuggles up to us in our sadness, protects us from danger. He most importantly frees us from our past and welcomes us into His future.
There is a Christian poem that has replaced the old, familiar “Mary Had a
Little Lamb.” It goes like this:
Mary had the little Lamb, who lived before His birth;
Self-existent Son of God, from Heaven He came to Earth. Micah 5:2
Mary had the little Lamb; see Him in yonder stall –
Virgin-born Son of God, to save man from the Fall. Isaiah 7:14
Mary had the little Lamb, obedient Son of God;
Everywhere the Father led, His feet were sure to trod. John 6:38
Mary had the little Lamb, crucified on the tree
The rejected Son of God, He died to set men free. 1 Peter 1:18
Mary had the little Lamb -- men placed Him in the grave,
Thinking they were done with Him; to death He was no slave! Matthew 28:6
Mary had the little Lamb, ascended now is He;
All work on Earth is ended, our Advocate to be. Hebrews 4:14-16
Mary had the little Lamb -- mystery to behold!
From the Lamb of Calvary, a Lion will unfold. Revelation 5: 5,6
When the Day Star comes again, of this be very sure:
It won't be Lamb-like silence, but with the Lion's roar. Psalm 2:12; Revelation 19:11-16
The parents stood over the hole in the backyard with their two young children and some neighborhood kids. Dad lowered the airtight Rubbermaid container into the ten gallon grave. Through streaming tears, each of the family members eulogized Ninja, their cat, who had been run over by a car. The death of a pet can really hurt. Especially the indiscriminate and unnecessary death of a pet like being hit by a car or eating pet food laced with rat poison.
The Bible reacts much differently to the death of our Lamb, however. Not with regret but with relief. We cry when our pet is hurt. One of the worst days of our lives is to take our dog to the vet to be put to sleep. Yet we celebrate every year the death of our pet Lamb. It pains us to know the pain our Lamb went through – stricken, smitten, afflicted, led like a sheep before his shearers, yet he remained silent. Yet we also rejoice that by His wounds we have been healed. (Isaiah 53:4-7) It’s not that our Lamb’s kidneys were failing and He needed to be put to sleep so that we’re relieved He’s free from pain. What relieves us is that our Lamb did experience pain. Lots of pain. Our pain. Our neighbor’s pain. The whole world’s pain. And we know pain, don’t we?
For one moment John looks into this world – the Church Militant, the Church at war – and he sees our suffering and struggling. We are beaten, bruised and battered. We are a minority battling against sin and evil. We are down, doubting and depressed. We are filthy, foul-mouthed failures. Then in the next moment John sees the world to come, the Church Triumphant. He sees this great multitude all in white, wearing their white baptismal gowns, covered in the seamless robes of Christ’s righteousness. They’re waving palm branches, the way the Israelites did every year at the Feast of Tabernacles when they marched around the temple grounds. Waving palm branches to signify God’s victory and their homecoming. A perpetual Palm Sunday.
Jesus gives John the Revelation that His saints will eventually escape the pain and death of this world to a paradise of victory and homecoming. The elder explains that the glorified believers are those “who are coming out of the great tribulation.” Note, present tense, not past tense the way the NIV translates it. One by one, as believers die, they escape the pain of this world and their souls enter the bliss of heaven, though their bodies remain in the grave until the bodily resurrection on Judgment Day.
The great tribulation is no a seven-year catastrophe or a climatic surge of evil in the last few hours before Jesus returns on Judgment Day as false teachers preach. The great tribulation is now. It is here in Racine. It’s in your home. In your heart. In your relationships. In your behavior. In your mouth. In your mind. In your memory. It’s pain. The pain of guilt recognizing that you have hurt the ones you love. The pain of realizing you have failed Jesus. The pain of regret wishing you could take back those hurtful words, that moment of weakness, and that impulsive purchase. The pain of worry dreading a head-on collision with tomorrow. It’s the pain of being hurt by others. This world is filled with hurt and pain. Our lives are filled with hurt and pain. But our Lamb once said, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)
The Lamb knows our pain and He offers you a cure. He has prepared the medicine to overcome the pain caused by sin and death. It the medicine of His love and forgiveness contained in the capsules of water and Word, of bread and wine, of the written, spoken and sung Word of God. It is the medicine that is poison for death and the devil.
Guilt, regret, hurt and pain are all overcome in our lives by the death of our pet Lamb, Jesus Christ. “These are they who are coming out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” Our precious pet has suffered and bled and died and been buried. It is the blood of the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. It is the blood of the Lamb that takes sinners and makes them saints. It is the blood of the Lamb that washes us clean in Holy Baptism and gives us a new identity as brothers and sisters in Christ. It is the blood of the Lamb that we taste and drink in Holy Communion that strengthens us against the assaults of the Evil One. And so in Christ we are no what we were not before – saints. It may sound bold to call ourselves sainted ones, yet that is who we are – not based on what we do, but based upon what our sacrificial Lamb has done for us, and given to us.
While on a guided tour of the holy land a group of passengers on a bus had been told again and again by their guide that shepherds never drive the sheep like cattle but always walk in front, leading them. As the bus came around a curve they looked out the window and saw a flock of sheep being driven by a man yelling at them from behind. A few muffled chuckles perturbed the tour guide enough to stop the bus, get out, and investigate by means of an extended conversation with the man. The guide returned to the bus with a smile of triumph on his face as he announced to the tourists, “He’s not their shepherd, he’s their butcher.”
Our pet Lamb was driven to the cross to be butchered by the sentence of our guilt and death, which he accepted as a willing sacrifice. Three days later he rose from the dead in his glorified body to show the world he had conquered sin and death, had opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers, and the victim had become the victor! With the same kind of transformation this section of Revelation switches metaphors so that Jesus our Lamb becomes Jesus our Shepherd – one moment led to the slaughter, the next moment leading us to eternal life. John describes this from his vision of believers enjoying heavenly bliss, “The Lamb at the center of the throne will be their Shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water.”
Ever since his bodily resurrection our Lamb is not on a cross but on a throne. Once the victim now the victor, ruling over sin and death by his resurrection power. With this power he leads us, his helpless sheep, to the waters of eternal life. In ten statements (the number ten indicates completeness and perfection, like getting a score of ten from a panel of judges) John paints for us the picture of heavenly perfection for believers in eternal life:
“Before the throne of God” – the best part of heaven is God’s approachability and his nearness to us.
And it’s not boring monotony, either, but believers in heaven “serve him day and night in his temple” with the very bodies we have now, perfected in glory, and the very skills we have now, but no mistakes.
“He who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them,” means that the ruler of all shares his space with us.
And at this heavenly feast we will never again hunger or thirst, and the sun will not beat down on us like it can do in the Middle East with its scorching heat, relentlessly burning its discomfort and pain into a person’s being, indicating that all the effects of sin, all its discomforts and evils, will never touch us again; nothing will be able to frustrate our eternal bliss.
After the 8th and 9th statements rejoice in the Lamb becoming the Shepherd and leading us to springs of living water, the perfect picture concludes, “and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” God’s gentle touch transforms the water of pain-filled tears into the always fresh spring waters of constantly flowing, eternal life.
You might be surprised that some animals known for their ability to hurt people are helping people. Scorpion venom kills cancerous cells, poison dart frog secretions can bring people out of cardiac arrest, and viper venom is a common ingredient in treating high blood pressure. God’s anger at sin is poisonous enough to punish anyone with painful torture now and a fatal sentence to hell forever. That same God became our pet Lamb, suffered the poison in our place, and then rose victoriously from the dead to win eternal life for us. We now live a fully forgiven life today and look forward to a constantly fulfilling eternal life in heaven. The Lamb is now the Shepherd. The victim is the victor. He lives, and so do we!
No stinker here. Great sermon!
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