Sunday School Lesson on Names of Jesus

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Sunday School Lesson on Names of Jesus

Introduction

A. Jesus as the Lamb

"Behold the Lamb of God!" proclaimed Johnthe Baptist (Johnaaa,.1.36 This introduces amajor theme in John's Gospel: lesns_ausurPassover The_apagitiolip (who is not thesame as John the Baptist) ties the death of Jesusclosely to the celebration of the Passover in Jeru-salem (see John 13:1; 19:14, 15).

The lamb of Passover was a tradition the Jewshad observed for over a thousand years by thetime Jesus arrived on the scene. It was at the cen-ter of the feast of Passover, a commemoration ofGod's deliverance of Israel from Egyptian slav-ery. In Egypt the children of Israel had been commanded to kill lambs and smear their blood on th edoors.

When we lookat the regulations for the Passover lamb, somestriking parallels to Christ are found. The lamb was to be without blemish or defect (Exodus12:5); the apostle Peter described Jesus as "alamb without blemish and without spot" (1 Peter1:19). The Passover lamb was to have no bonebroken (Exodus 12:46); John included this detailinto his account of Jesus' death, telling us thatHis legs were not broken by the Roman execu-tioners (John 19:36).

The most remarkable parallel is that, accord-ing to Jewish tradition, the Passover lambs werekilled by priests within use Jerusalem templeprecincts, and then taken to homes for the feast.At 3 PM on Passover day, the high priest wouldslaughter the final lamb, saying, "It is finished."If we combine Mark 15:34 and John 19:30, wecan see that it was at 3 PM 011 (what we call)Good Friday when Jesus uttered the words "It isfinished" as He died for the sin of the world.The designations of Lamb is the most commonway of referring to the risen Jesus in the book ofRevelation, used some two dozen times there. Amarvelous picture emerges if we examine theseverses: the Lamb shares the judgmental wrath ofGod (Revelation 6:16); the Lamb's blood cleansesHis people from sin (7:14); the Lamb is the au-thor of the book of life (13:8); the Lamb has asong akin to the song of Moses (15:3); the Lambleads the victorious armies of Heaven (17:14);and the Lamb will be the light of new Jerusalem

(21:23). A central, climactic event in Revelation

is the marriage supper of the Lamb, where Hetakes His bride, the church (19:7-9).

The Passover lambs of the Jews symbolizedpurity, sacrifice, and escape from God's wrath.The book of Revelation uses all of these attri-butes in drawing its picture of the Lamb. Thebook adds truths that the Christ-Lamb is victori-ous over death and over the enemies of God.This mighty image deserves our study!

B. Lesson Background

Last week's lesson looked at the opening sceneof John's vision of Heaven. W2.1 rid a breath-

kin, tableaui s before e throne-cifGo, . c yt e4 creatures t rat attend theone.

The worship was josned by 24 horroreStudyc---TIMT-R71 airlrirTerFus to un&rstand the by Him. John is aware that none of his fellowcs-'01:Fres, whether human or angelic, has the reo-zisite authority to break the seals and open thebunk Thi,15_12,,,uitise none of them is worthy,.

4.And I wept much, because no man wasfound worthy to open and to read the book, nei-ther to look thereon.

The facts of verse 3 cause what we may deemto be a strange reaction in John: weeping. Hefeels the crisis deeply. We can infer that he is sadfor two reasons. First, he has a strong desire toknow the contents of the scroll, both for himselfand so that he may be able to share the contentswills his fellow believers (see Revelation 1:1).When that happens. humans may know betterhow to proceed with God's plans. [See question#1,

Second, John realizes that no human is worthycat/hill...LW even him. Much like Isaiah...Um

Its is own unwo Isaiah515.). God has established the standard of worthi-nessearently no one measures up to it.

C. Lion and Root (v. 5)

5.And one of the elders saith unto me, Weepnot: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, theRoot of David, bath prevailed to open the book,and to loose the seven seals thereof.

Both of these are obvious titles for the Messiah,the risen Christ. However, the exact phrase Rootof David is not found in the Old Testament (seeIsaiah 11:10, "root of Jesse," realizing that Jessewas King David's fattier). Sometimes the OldTestament prophets refer to the Messiah as thebranch of David who originates from David's dy-nasty (see Jeremiah 23:5; 33:15). This was true ofthe earthly Jesus, a rightful descendant of David(Matthew 1:1).

But in His eternal fullness, the Messiah is notderivative of the house of David. Rather, just thereverse is true: that house is dependent uponHim. The preexistent Christ is the source of thepromise to David. This was taught by Jesus whenHe pointed out that David prophetically referredto the Messiah as "my Lord" (Luke 20:41-44).

NAVAJO CODE TALKERS

Navajo code talkers took part in every U.S.Marine battle in the Pacific between 1942 and1945. Fewer than 30 non-Navajos could speakthe language at the time. One of them was PhilipJohnston, son of a missionary who grew up on a Navajo reservation. He persuaded the U.S. gov-ernment that Navajo was the perfect code lan-guage. An unwrittenlanguage, Navajo uses a very complex syntax andtonal system.

To make the code work, a series of unrelatedNavajo words were first translated into Englishequivalents. Then the first letters of the equiva-lents were used to spell English words. To makethe code even harder to crack, most English let-ters could be signified by more than one Navajoword. The skilled Japanese code breakerscouldn't break this one!

Some have seen the Bible as a book of codes—codes that we should try to "break." Indeed, theidea of mystery or secret is found in many placesin the Bible (examples: Daniel 2:18, 19, 27, 30;Romans 11:25; 16:25; Colossians 1:26, 27). Thesecrets of the book that John saw revealed weremore inscrutable than those protected by anyhuman code. We should not be surprised thatonly God can reveal those secrets. This mightalso be good advice to heed when someone offersthe supposedly "one-and-only true" interpreta-lion of the book of Revelation!

II. Lamb Worshiped in Heaven(Revelation 5:8-14)The Messiah now appears. Fhit His not as a uus,,ID-Nassii-rsuper_,.hero Hejs_a_latzb. He is nota cute, docile lainE76wever, but a powerful,hold being. JitLlias the appearance of havingslauw,ht jter not in today's

text),1WHis w w.01 i,sbohizissg pprfp,:t. ;Lb.§isJiL saaisZiotlelL asthe se_yen spirit,s, th.e..thalpirit of God, at Hisdisposal (again, 5:6). His authority and worthi-ness are unquestioned. The enthroned Godgladly allows Hint to take the scroll in prepara-tion for its opening (5:7).

A. Beasts and Elders (v. 8)

a. And when he had taken the book, the fourbeasts and four and twenty elders fell downbefore the Lamb, having every one of themharps, and golden vials full of odors, which arethe prayers of saints.

B. New Song (vv. 9, 10)

9. And they sung a new song, saying, Thou artworthy to take the book, and to open the sealsthereof: for thou avast slain, and hast redeemedus to God by thy blood out of every kindred,and tongue, and people, and nation.

Furthe Lnsts is foundjn_the...siugin.g..44-4.1..aeLy_s.g._lb the Old Testament, the new song was alwayssung to God as an act of worship (Psalm 33:3:40:3: 96:1; 98:1; 144:9; Isaiah 42:10).

The idea of a priestly kingdom has alreadybeen introduced (Revelation 1:6; compare1 Peter 2:5, 9). This was the ideal for Israel asGod's holy nation (see Exodus 19:6). Thepromises we see here are encouraging to John'sfirst readers, who are under persecution fromthe Roman Empire.

C. Host of Angels (vv. 11, 12)

11.And I beheld, and I heard the voice ofmany angels round about the throne, and thebeasts, and the elders: and the number of themwas ten thousand times ten thousand, and thou-sands of thousands.

The song of the elders is now joined by a seem-ingly infinite host of heavenly angels. Saying tenthousand times ten thousand is not a precisemathematical formula but is more like our exu-berant expression "gazillions." They are innumer-able (compare Daniel 7:10; Hebrews 12:22). Thisglorious scene is beyond our imagination.

12. Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is theLamb that was slain to receive power, and rich-es, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, andglory, and blessing.portant qualifications for worthiness: poweduhii-

Visual for Lesson 8. This visual can remind yourstudents that there are more than six billion peopleon the earth. Ask, "How will we reach them?"

rhonor (esteemglory (majesty), andblessing (approval). See 1 Chronicles 29:11, 12.

D. Universal Chorus (vv. 13, 14)13, 14. And every creature which is in heav-en, and on the earth, and under the earth, andsuch as are in the sea, and all that are in them,heard I saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory,and power. be unto him that sitteth upon thethrone, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.And the four beasts said, Amen. And the fourand twenty elders fell down and worshippedhim that liveth for ever and ever.The warship chorus is now joined by even'creature. The celebration is so great that evenheaven cannot contain itrThe acclamation of thecreatures is fourfold, symbolic of the entireworld beating four of the items from the an-gelic song.

This song is also reminiscent of the originalson worthiness Revelation 4.11.

The redeemer of humanity is worthy of worship,and no human king is similarly deserving. Thescene ends on a high note with the worship bythe 4 beasts and the 24 elders. They worship un-reservedly, counting the Lamb as worthy as theone who sits on the throne.

This powerful, moving description of heav-enly worship is as inspiring today as it was whenJohn first wrote it. We see in it the great esteemand worthiness that all Heaven accords to therisen Jesus, our redeemer and Lord. See ques-tion #4, page 296.1 HEAVENLY MUSIC:

Is there any piece of music composed by ahuman being that would be worthy of being sungbefore the very throne of God? Some believe thatthe "Hallelujah Chorus" could be it!

Handel composed this chorus in 1741 as partof his famous Messiah oratorio. That was a diffi-cult year for Handel. He was trying to get by on avery small income and it was bringing him to de-spair. Creditors were hounding him. But one dayhe received a thick envelope from Charles Jen-nens, a wealthy admirer of Handel's music. In-side the envelope was page after page of carefullychosen Scripture passages that Jennens thoughtshould be set to music.

Handel was inspired! Over the next few weekshe worked day and night on the piece of musicthat was burning in his soul. When he had fin-ished, he exclaimed, "I do believe I have seen allof Heaven before use and the great God himself!"Audiences since Handel's day have seemed toagree, especially given the tradition of rising toone's feet during the "Hallelujah Chorus." Wemay be sure that the great chorus of praise inHeaven will be even more glorious!

Conclusion

A. Jesus in Christian Worship

One of the burning issues of John's day wasthe danger of worshiping false gods. Under thereign of Emperor Domitian, citizens were re-quired to do a yearly act of worship to the "ge-nius" of the emperor—something Christiansrefused to do. For this they were persecuted,some even to death. John knew that one of theseven churches of Asia had suffered the martyrdom of a faithful member named Antipas (Reve-lation 2:13). Revelation tells the horrible story ofpeople who worshiped a false god. This may becode language for emperor worship (see Revela-tion 19:20; 20:4).

There are two sides to the coin of worship. Onone side is the principle that worship is for Godand only for God. If there is another recipient ofworship, worship has become idolatry, the mostgrievous sin in the Bible. When John falls downto worship an angel, he is admonished, "Do itnot ... worship God!" (Revelation 19:10). This isan absolute in the Bible. There is only one God.and He alone is worthy of worship.

The other side of the coin is that acts of wor-ship clearly reveal who a person's god is. We mayclaim to worship God, but the way we live ourlives will show what we really count as worthy.It may be ourselves. It may be a political philoso-phy. It may be wealth and pleasure. We seePaul's awareness of this when he writes of those"whose God is their belly" (Philippians 3:19).With these principles in mind, we are con-fronted wills a difficult dilemma. If them is onlyone God, and He alone is worthy of worship,where does Jesus, the redeeming Lamb, fit in? Ifwe worship God and His Son, are we guilty ofworshiping two Gods?

We may not have an exhaustive answer to thisquestion because it hinges on the mystery of theTrinitarian stature of God. The doctrine of theTrinity defies human logic, because it claims in acertain sense that 1+1+1=1. Some have there-fore had an aversion to doing anything thatseems like direct worship of Jesus.

This is not what we find in the picture of wor-ship supplied by John. Once the Lamb enters thescene, worship is directed, unreservedly, to theone sitting on the throne (God) and to the Lamb(Revelation 5:13). This combination appears sev-eral times in the book (example: Revelation22:1). It is proper and fitting to worship Jesus theLamb, who redeemed us by taking away our sin.This is the Jesus we have a relationship withtoday. He is seated at the right hand of God inHeaven. Jesus should be counted as worthy inour hearts and in our worship.

B. Prayer

To God, the one who sits on the throne, weoffer our praise, our honor, and our blessings. Tothe Lamb, our redeemer, we offer our deepestthanks and devotion. In Jesus' name, amen.

C. Thought to Remember

Honor Jesus in your worship.

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