Worthy Is the Lamb

Text: Revelation 5:1–14 Series: Sending Sunday Date: August 9, 2026 Speaker: Ed Rangel Location: Waupaca Church of Christ Bible Version: NASB 1995 Sermon Type: Expository

Thesis

The slain and risen Lamb is worthy of all worship because He conquered through His sacrifice and purchased a kingdom for God from every people on earth.

Hook

The strongest person you know cannot open the scroll in Revelation 5.

No ruler can take it. No army can seize it. No scholar can explain it open. Heaven, earth, and everything beneath the earth are searched, and no created person is worthy. John begins to weep because the scroll remains closed.

Then an elder tells him to stop weeping. Someone has conquered. John turns to see a Lion—and sees a Lamb standing as though slain.

Introduction

1. Revelation 4 brings John through an open door in heaven and fixes his attention upon the throne of God.
2. Chapter 5 begins with a scroll in God’s right hand, written inside and on the back, sealed with seven seals.
3. As the seals are opened in the chapters that follow, God’s judgments move history toward the victory of Christ and His people.
4. Before any seal can be opened, one question must be answered: “Who is worthy to open the book and to break its seals?”
5. Revelation 5 answers that question by showing us the Lion who conquered as the Lamb who was slain.

I. No Created Person Was Worthy to Open the Scroll (Revelation 5:1–4)

A. The scroll remained in the hand of the One seated on the throne.

1. John 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” (Revelation 5:1).
   1. The scroll belongs to God. History is not loose, abandoned, or finally governed by earthly rulers.
   2. What is sealed cannot be carried out by whoever happens to want control of it.
2. A strong angel proclaimed with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the book and to break its seals?” (Revelation 5:2).
   1. The question was not who possessed enough curiosity, intelligence, or ambition.
   2. Worthiness was required.

B. Creation could not supply the one God’s purpose required.

3. “And no one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the book or to look into it” (Revelation 5:3).
   1. The search crossed every part of creation.
   2. No angel, ruler, conqueror, or departed hero could step forward.
4. John said, “Then I began to weep greatly because no one was found worthy to open the book or to look into it” (Revelation 5:4).
   1. John understood that a closed scroll meant more than an unanswered question.
   2. If no one could take it, God’s righteous purpose would not be brought to its appointed completion through any created person.
5. Human strength repeatedly promises what it cannot deliver.
   1. Nations speak as though history belongs to them, but nations rise and fall.
   2. Men promise safety, justice, and a better world, but every human hand is marked by weakness and sin.
   3. If our hope depends upon finding the right earthly person to take control, we have reason to weep with John.

II. The Lion Conquered as the Lamb Who Was Slain (Revelation 5:5–7)

A. John was told that the promised King had overcome.

1. One of the elders said, “Stop weeping; behold, the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome” (Revelation 5:5).
   1. The Lion comes from Judah, the tribe from which the ruler was promised (Genesis 49:9–10).
   2. He is the Root of David, the promised King who fulfills the hope attached to David’s house.
2. The elder announced that He “has overcome so as to open the book and its seven seals.”
   1. Jesus does not approach the throne as an untested claimant.
   2. He has already conquered.

B. John saw that Christ’s victory came through sacrifice.

3. John looked “between the throne” and the living creatures and elders and saw “a Lamb standing, as if slain” (Revelation 5:6).
   1. He was told to look for the Lion, but he saw the Lamb.
   2. The Lamb bears the marks of death, yet He is standing. He was slain, and He lives.
4. The Lamb had seven horns and seven eyes, “which are the seven Spirits of God, sent out into all the earth” (Revelation 5:6).
   1. Revelation communicates through signs. The horns portray complete power, and the eyes portray complete sight through the Spirit of God.
   2. The Lamb who appeared powerless at the cross possesses the power and knowledge required to carry out God’s purpose.
5. “And He came and took the book out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne” (Revelation 5:7).
   1. No creature could take it. Jesus could.
   2. The Father entrusts the scroll to the Son who obeyed unto death and overcame.
6. The cross was not the defeat Christ later had to repair.
   1. He conquered through faithful suffering, sacrificial death, and resurrection.
   2. The Lion’s victory is revealed in the Lamb’s wounds.
   3. Gem: Heaven measures victory by the Lamb who gave Himself, not by the power men use to exalt themselves.

III. The Lamb Purchased a Kingdom from Every People (Revelation 5:8–10)

A. Heaven responded to the Lamb with worship.

1. “When He had taken the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb” (Revelation 5:8).
   1. They held harps and golden bowls full of incense, “which are the prayers of the saints.”
   2. The prayers of suffering Christians are present before God; they have not disappeared unheard.
2. They sang a new song: “Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain” (Revelation 5:9).
   1. The Lamb’s worthiness is tied directly to His sacrifice.
   2. Heaven does not hide the cross when it praises Christ. Heaven praises Him because He was slain and conquered.

B. The blood of Christ reaches across every human boundary.

3. The song continues: “and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation” (Revelation 5:9).
   1. Jesus did not die to establish one more human party separated by race, language, class, or national border.
   2. His blood purchases people for God from every part of the human family.
4. The church’s concern for the gospel cannot stop at the edge of town, the border of a state, or the comfort of familiar people.
   1. The Lamb has a claim upon every person we will meet.
   2. Every campus, classroom, workplace, neighborhood, and nation contains souls for whom Christ died.
5. The song says, “You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth” (Revelation 5:10).
   1. Christ is not waiting to establish His kingdom at some future earthly return. He has already made His redeemed people a kingdom.
   2. Christians serve as priests to God, belonging to His rule and offering lives of faithful service.
6. We do not carry the gospel because our congregation needs to be represented in more places.
   1. We carry it because the Lamb purchased people for God.
   2. We do not go merely because the world is needy. We go because the Lamb is worthy.

IV. All Creation Declared the Lamb’s Worth (Revelation 5:11–14)

A. The worship surrounding the throne became too great to number.

1. John heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders—“myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands” (Revelation 5:11).
   1. Their number was beyond ordinary counting.
   2. Their many voices spoke one confession.
2. They said 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” (Revelation 5:12).
   1. Everything earthly powers grasp for belongs rightly to Christ.
   2. The Lamb does not compete for a small religious corner of life. He is worthy of everything we are and everything we possess.

B. The song reached every created thing.

3. John heard “every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea” blessing the One on the throne and the Lamb (Revelation 5:13).
   1. The chapter began with no created person worthy to open the scroll.
   2. It ends with all creation recognizing the worth of the One who could.
4. “And the four living creatures kept saying, ‘Amen.’ And the elders fell down and worshiped” (Revelation 5:14).
   1. Heaven’s answer to the Lamb is not admiration at a distance. It is worship.
   2. The proper response on earth is the same.
5. Sending Sunday must finally be about more than the people who are leaving.
   1. The center of this day is not the student, the traveler, the preacher, or the congregation.
   2. The center is Jesus Christ—the Lamb who was slain, who lives, who reigns, and who deserves our worship wherever we go.

Application

Some will leave for college. Some will return to school. Some will travel. Some will preach in another place. Most will continue serving God in familiar homes and familiar work. Revelation 5 gives every Christian the same center: the Lamb is worthy. Distance does not change His authority. A new schedule does not reduce His claim. An unfamiliar place does not remove our duty to worship, obey, and speak His name.

Decide what the Lamb is worth before the pressure comes. Is He worthy of the time required to worship with His church? Is He worthy of purity when compromise would make life easier? Is He worthy of an honest confession when people ask what you believe? Is He worthy of carrying the gospel beyond the people who already know it? Heaven’s answer is not uncertain: “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain.”

Those who remain at home are not spectators while others go. Pray for open hearts. Support the preaching of the gospel. Speak to the people God places near you. Keep worship at the center of the congregation. We may serve in different places, but all faithful service rises toward the same throne.

Conclusion

1. No created person was worthy to take the scroll from God’s hand.
2. Jesus conquered as the Lamb who was slain and now stands alive.
3. By His blood He purchased a kingdom for God from every tribe, language, people, and nation.
4. Heaven and earth have one rightful response: “Worthy is the Lamb.”
5. Wherever we go, let us live so that our worship, obedience, and witness agree with heaven’s song.