Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #4 of Revelation, chapter 5, and we are going to be reading Revelation 5:5:

And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.

Now we need to back up one verse to see why the Apostle John was weeping and it says in Revelation 5:4:

And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon.

When we look up the Greek word that is translated here as weep (and it is also the same word in verse 5 when one of the elders says unto him, “Weep not”), this word is often used in connection with death.  When the young girl had died and the Lord said to the mourners, “Weep not, she is not dead, but sleepeth,” and that is the same word.  It is the same word used in connection with the death of Lazarus while he was in the tomb.  The majority of times when this word is used it involves weeping and death; somehow, the crying, the weeping, is related to death. 

And, here, we wonder, “What is the seriousness?  Why is the Apostle John weeping just because this book is sealed?  And it says that the reason he is weeping is “because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon,” or “to see,” because that word “to look” is more often translated as “to see;” that is, “because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to see.”  Now, of course, verse 5 tells us: “And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.” 

We will see as we get more into this verse that it is speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ; He is able to do that which no man previously was able to do.  No man any where – no matter where you looked for a man – was able to open and read and see the writing of this sealed book.  So John is weeping and the LORD is giving comfort and saying, “Weep not.”

And then it goes on to say in Revelation 5:6-9:

And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.  And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne.  And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints.  And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;

So there is no question.  Jesus is able and worthy to do what man could not.  And we understand from many other places in the Bible that it would take a sinless man in order to offer up the proper sacrifice for sin; it would take a perfect man, a man without any blot or any transgression.  And, also,  it would take a God-Man because not only would he have to offer up himself for one other individual but for a great number as “the stars of the sky for multitude,” the Bible says; and all of their sins and all of their guilt and all of the weight and burden of their filthy deeds would be laid upon one Man, and one Man only, the Lord Jesus Christ, Eternal God, JEHOVAH, the Saviour of His elect people.  And no man was even able to begin to go about performing that tremendous atoning work on behalf of others; no one was qualified to do this but Eternal God, who entered into the human race to make manifest what He had done from the foundation of the world.  Eternal God was the only one who could do it and the only one worthy.

But what does all that have to do with the sealed book?  And it does have to do with the sealed book and that is the real puzzle here – that is the real question, because we know the book is the Bible.  And we know it was God’s plan to seal up the word till the time of the end.  And, here, we find that Book in the right hand of God and sealed with seven seals.  The question was asked in verse 2, “Who is worthy to open the book and to loose the seals thereof?”   And that is when the Apostle John (writing under the inspiration of God as he is being given this vision) begins to weep because no man was found worthy. 

Oh, but there is one; yes, there is one: the Lord Jesus.  And we understand and we quickly see that this is all referring to the atonement; it has to do with the death that Christ died on behalf of His people, for the sake of the elect. 

But what we are not seeing too clearly is how that atoning work of Christ identifies and relates to that sealed Book of the Bible which would be sealed until the time of the end?  Why is it necessary for Jesus to be found worthy in order to open the Book?  And why could no man be found that was worthy to open the Book?  This is the curious thing about this passage and, really, about this whole chapter: God is making a very big deal out of the fact that the Lord Jesus was qualified to open the Book and did open the Book of the Bible. 

It is not a small matter and that means that we should never think little of what God has done in unsealing the Scriptures in our day, at this time of the end.  This is an incredibly important thing in God’s program; this is not a minor thing, not an obscure thing or an unimportant thing.  But it is very major.  It is a tremendously important aspect of God’s program of salvation and judgment.  It is tied to the worthiness of the Lord Jesus Christ.  It is tied to His atoning work, that God, in the process of time according to His timetable of times and seasons for this world – would open up the seals that had bound the Holy Book, the Bible, at the time of the end.  And it would take a worthy Saviour, a pure and perfect Saviour – the Lord Jesus – in order to accomplish this. 

We want to think about this and since we are going verse by verse, we will have plenty of time to think about this and pray for wisdom and spend a little bit of time dwelling upon it, because this is the overriding emphasis in Revelation 5: the worthiness of the Lamb.  And because He was worthy, this permits Him to open up the Book, the Bible.

Well, let us read here in Revelation 5:5:

And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not:…

First of all, we have to correct this because, literally, the verse should read: “one out of the elders saith unto me, Weep not.”  The word one is here, but the word “out of” is not translated in our Kings James.  Yes, there were twenty four elders and when we read “one of the elders,” we think that one of the elders is speaking to John.  But it ought to read “one out of the elders,” and that is a very important distinction because it says in Revelation 5:6:

And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain…

So the Lamb is in the midst of the elders and it says in verse 5, again, and  “one out of the elders saith unto me, Weep  not.”  Now God is one.  He is the sovereign One.  He is the eternal deity and the Almighty and the number one identifies with him; He is in the midst of the elders and Christ is the Lamb, so He is the one that is responding to the Apostle John.

And that figures, because it is God who comforts His people.  It is God who soothes our souls and our troubled minds when we are weeping and when we are downcast.  It is the LORD that speaks a word to encourage our hearts and, so, too, here in Revelation 5:5:

And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.

Now the phrase “Lion of the tribe of Juda” is pulled all the way from the Book of Genesis.  It says in Genesis, chapter 49, when the sons of Jacob were gathered together before him and he began to address each one of them, prophesying before them, and it says in Genesis 49:8-12:

Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise: thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies; thy father's children shall bow down before thee.  Judah is a lion's whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up?  The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him *shall* the gathering of the people be.  Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass's colt unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes: His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk.

Well, here, in this passage Judah is spoken of as a “lion’s whelp.”  It is a prophesy referring to the Lord Jesus that would come forth from the tribe of Judah.  He is the Lion of the tribe of Judah.  These are the words that Jacob spoke long ago before his death in Egypt, as he said these things to his son and to Judah himself; and it is pointing to the Lord that would come through the loins of Judah (in the sense that he was a son of David through Mary) and will be born into the tribes of Judah many centuries from this point.

And “The sceptre” (and a king rules with a sceptre) “ shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver” (and who is a lawgiver but the Judge) “from between his feet, until Shiloh come.” And, here, also, Shiloh is a reference to Christ.  So Jesus is the Lion of the tribe of Judah and He is the one that is spoken of in Revelation 5:5:  “behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda.” Jesus is the fulfillment of the prophecy given by Jacob in Genesis 49.

And it goes on to say: “the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book.”  And David also was of the tribe of Judah and Christ is one of his descendents (not through his earthly stepfather Joseph but through his mother, as the father of Jesus is God Himself, as Christ was conceived and born of a virgin), so the “root of David” is a reference to the fact that Christ came forth through the descendents of David, as we read in Isaiah 11:10:

And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse…

(Now it says “Jesse,” but Jesse is the father of David, so it may as well say “a root of David.”)

And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious.  And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people…

And it begins to speak of God’s salvation program:  “And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse.”  This is referring to Christ.  There is a follow up statement in Isaiah 53:1-3:

Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of JEHOVAH revealed?  For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.  Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of JEHOVAH revealed?  For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.  He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief…

It continues on and every statement found in Isaiah 53 is wonderfully describing Christ Himself.  He is the one that came up “as a root out of a dry ground.”  The word root is referring to the Lord.  Now we may as well look at Matthew 13, as we are looking at these other verses, because it helps us to understand it more clearly (when you do a word search like this), and it says in Matthew 13:20-21:

But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it;  Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended.

And that is it (for that person):  “I am going away.  I am returning to the world.  I am going back to the church.  I am getting away from these teachings that are so troubling to me.  I cannot bear the problems, the difficulties and the persecutions they bring.”

But no matter what the reason is, the real reason he is not enduring during the time of testing or tribulation is because “he hath not root in himself;” and we can very definitely understand that to be a reference to the Lord Jesus, the root of Jesse, the root that springs up out of dry ground.  He (the unsaved individual) has not the spirit of Christ within and, therefore, he is not equipped and simply not able to endure.  And this is why God says in Matthew 24 that the one that “endures to the end shall be saved.”  

He is not saying, “Everyone, just hold on with white knuckles and just grab a hold and use all your strength and make sure you stand fast.”  No.  When God says of the ones that “endure to the end,” He is indicating those that have a root in themselves.  They, therefore, will endure because Christ is within; it is not a matter of their strength, their willpower, their stubbornness, their steadfastness, or their faithfulness.  It is only a matter of who is within them and without the root within, they will only endure for a period of time – and that period of time can be different from one unsaved person to the next, but the qualifier is a period of time; for some, it is very quick and, for others, they may hold on for a while, but, finally, they have no root and they will not endure.  God is certainly making sure of that in this severe day of testing that we are presently in.

Once again, we see in our verse in Revelation 5:5:

And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.

He “hath prevailed.”  It is speaking of a past event – that Christ has prevailed from the foundation of the world.  He entered into the human race and He submitted Himself to testing when Satan tested Him for forty days; He submitted Himself to testing throughout the period of His ministry; He submitted Himself to punishment a second time (even though He was not bearing sin), and in all these things, He was victorious and He overcame any and all efforts to oppose Him and the kingdom of God.  The Lord Jesus hath prevailed.

This word prevailed is the same word that we encountered, time and again, in Revelation chapters 2 and 3 regarding the churches, when the Lord would say, “He that overcometh,” in each one of the addresses to each one of the churches.  This is the same Greek word that was translated as “overcometh.”   It has to do with being victorious and prevailing, as it is found in John 16:33:

These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

Or, (we could say) “I have prevailed over the world.”  He has already won the victory.  Christ has already defeated the enemy because He did it from the foundation of the world;  He did it before the world even began. 

And, here, this glorious, victorious work of the Saviour – the atonement work that He did for the sake of all whose names were recorded in the Lamb’s Book of Life – is being called up and brought to remembrance because if not for that, no one would be able to open the Book and no one would be able to open loose the seals.  And if that did not happen, then God’s end time program would not have come to pass; God would not have been able to save a great multitude during the time of the Great Tribulation; God would not have been able to complete His salvation plan because the great majority of individuals predestinated to salvation were to be born and live during the “little season” that came right at the end of the world.

So it was absolutely necessary that the Lord “hath prevailed.”   And, of course, if Jesus did not prevail, not only would the Book not be open, but there would be no salvation program at all during any period of history.  When we get together in our next Bible study, we are going to look more at this idea – this connection that God makes with the opening of the Bible at the time of the end and the atoning work of the Lord.