Lord, we thank You for Your presence, and we come with worshipping hearts to give them to You. Lord, for the next hour, grant us utterance. Take away every hindrance, even the language hindrance, so that Your message and Your word may be clear.
Lord, we pray for the Holy Spirit to anoint us in the speaking and in the listening. Without You, Lord, all our efforts will be in vain. So, Lord, we commit this time to You. We praise You, for worthy is the Lamb. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Good morning again. When the brothers asked whether I had anything to share, I thought, there is nothing better to share than, “Worthy is the Lamb,” right? This chorus came up, and I would like to share a little story first.
In 1994, it was our first time arriving at the Christian Family Conference. We knew nothing about God’s eternal purpose. When we arrived, there was a chorus of brothers and sisters singing together. There was something indescribable in that sense of worship.
As I look back, this summer will be my twentieth year. Nineteen years is a long time. Lots of things change. As I look at where we are today, and where I am today, there are a lot of difficulties outwardly. I understand that many of our brothers and sisters have the same experience.
But when I think of this chorus, “Worthy is the Lamb,” the Lamb’s worthiness never changes. Sometimes He puts us through difficult situations so that we may really appreciate His worthiness. We appreciate Him much more as we go through difficulties. I think that is really our testimony here for many of us.
A couple of months ago, I shared on the matter of the Lamb in Revelation. The Lamb is mentioned many times in that book. I believe that, in the heart of God, when He reveals the Son to us, He wants us to see the Lamb.
The other occasions in the New Testament are in the Gospel of John, where John the Baptist testified, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world.” The second time, he again said, “Behold, the Lamb of God.”
Today, we will change the focus a little. We still behold the Lamb, but in this case we behold the Lamb in the center of the throne.
Let us turn to Revelation 7:17, the first portion of the verse:
For the Lamb in the midst of the throne shall be their shepherd.
I think this is critical for our time. Whether we recognize it or not, the Lamb is in the midst of the throne. A question comes up: How did the Lamb come to the center of the throne?
The Lord led me to Philippians 2:6-11.
Who, existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped,
but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men;
and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross.
Wherefore also God highly exalted Him, and gave unto Him the name which is above every name;
that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth,
and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
It seems to me that this is the pathway for God’s Son. He was worthy to be in the throne in the first place, but there was a way for the Lamb to be at the throne: He went through this history.
This is not all. In Philippians 2:5, Paul exhorts us:
Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.
It is not only that the Lamb is at the throne. The Lord also wants His people to be with Him at the throne. I believe that this exhortation—having this attitude—is critical for this time.
Let us turn to Revelation 21:2. We come to the age of eternity: a new heaven and a new earth. Then something marvellous comes down from heaven.
And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.
We could go through many words and see how glorious that Jerusalem is. But let me give a brief introduction to the overall picture that the Lord has put in my heart.
When we look at the Lamb in the center of the throne, we often think of the Lamb as our Redeemer. Indeed, He is our Redeemer. At the Lord’s table, we remember that He died for us and brought us back to the Father.
But that is not all. Because of His great love and amazing grace toward us, He also wants His people to be with Him on the throne.
I believe God shows us the Lamb on the throne for at least two purposes. First, throughout history—even before the creation of man—there has been a contest concerning who is on the throne. Behind all the conflicts, turmoil, and things going on in this world, there is something deeper. There is a spirit behind these conflicts.
Second, as I mentioned, the desire of the Lord’s heart is to have His people on the throne with Him. Therefore, we need to ask two questions: How is the Lamb on the throne? What are His qualifications and characteristics? And how do believers come to the throne?
The Lamb is also King. In this country, because we are democratic, sometimes we do not like the thought of a king. But it is good to have a king. A throne is a seat of authority. We need someone in authority. The key question is: Who is on the throne?
Who is on the throne affects nations, and it affects our own lives. As believers, we would like the Lord Himself to be on the throne.
When we look through the history of Israel, who was their first king? Saul, right? Actually, that is a trick question. In 1 Samuel 8:7, when the people came asking for a king like the other nations, the Lord told Samuel that the people had not rejected Samuel; they had rejected the Lord from being King over them.
As far as Israel was concerned, they already had God as their King, but they were not satisfied. They wanted to be like the other nations. God allowed them to do this, and they found a man who was handsome and capable outwardly. They made him king.
We know the rest of the story. There was so much weakness, defeat, and loss because they turned their hearts away from the rightful King to someone whom they liked and chose—someone after the nature of Adam.
Even today, when we consider the moral decay and the problems in our nation, we have to say that we have the wrong king. We have put human beings on the throne. This is humanism: man can do it.
On the personal level, our hearts are a throne. Who is king on the throne of your heart? Many times, we must confess that we have ourselves on the throne—the self-life. Then we make a mess of everything. We need to have Christ on the throne of our hearts.
This throne, this kingship, is critical both on the national level and on the personal level.
In Revelation, the Lamb and the throne are connected. The throne of God and of the Lamb is mentioned repeatedly: Revelation 5:13; 6:16; 7:9-10, 17; and 22:1, 3.
Revelation is the last book of the Bible. It is the consummation and the revelation of Jesus Christ. God sums everything up in this book and says, in effect, “Look at the Lamb. Look at the King.” The Lamb and the King belong together. We cannot merely accept the Lord as the Lamb; He must also be King.
As we come toward the end of this age, the name and lordship of Christ are contested. Yet the Father reminds us: no matter what happens, no matter what difficulties we go through, remember that the Lamb, who is the King, is on the throne.
When the Antichrist comes—even now, in the spirit of antichrist—there will be deceivers who question the kingship of Jesus. But we need this reinforcement: Jesus is King. He is the Lamb, and He is the King.
There is a conflict. Whether we believe it or not, there is a battle raging throughout the generations concerning who will occupy the throne.
Psalm 2:1-2 says:
Why do the nations rage,
And the peoples meditate a vain thing?
The kings of the earth set themselves,
And the rulers take counsel together,
Against the Lord, and against His anointed.
As we look around today at turmoil in the Middle East, North Africa, Asia, and many other places—even in this country—we see violence, lawlessness, and a steep decline in moral standards. What is going on?
These are not merely independent and unrelated events. The Bible says that there is something behind all these things. There is a spirit rising against the Lord Himself and against His Anointed—against God and His Son.
If we go back in history, even before the creation of man, we find the beginning of this conflict in Isaiah 14:12-14.
How art thou fallen from heaven, O day-star, son of the morning!
How art thou cut down to the ground, that didst lay low the nations!
And thou saidst in thy heart, I will ascend into heaven,
I will exalt my throne above the stars of God;
And I will sit upon the mount of congregation, in the uttermost parts of the north;
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.
This is Lucifer, the enemy, Satan, God’s adversary. This conflict is not new; it began before the creation of man.
Yet this universe was created by God’s Son. Colossians 1:16 says that all things were created through Him, and unto Him. He is the rightful Owner. But Lucifer came and said, in effect, “I want to take the place of God’s Son.” That is the conflict, and it has continued through the ages.
God is sovereign over all this. Because of the great love the Father has for the Son, He created man for His Son’s purpose, that man might share in Their love. But there is more than that. God also had a purpose for man.
Genesis 1:26 and 1:28 show us this purpose. Man was to have dominion and to subdue. To subdue means to subdue the enemy.
God could deal with Satan without any effort at all. But in this case, His intention was to use man to subdue him. Besides sharing in the love of His Son, God’s purpose was for man to have dominion—to reign and rule with the Lord—and to subdue the enemy.
Of course, we know that Adam and Eve failed in temptation, and they were driven away from the garden of Eden.
Genesis 3:24 says:
So He drove out the man; and He placed at the east of the garden of Eden the cherubim, and the flame of a sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.
I often come back to this word, especially at the Lord’s table. What does this mean to us? Man, in his own nature, can never approach God. The cherubim and the flaming sword speak to us of the cross.
Natural man can never arrive at a position where he can rule and reign with God’s Son. That is the judgment and termination of man according to the Adamic nature.
But there is more. Man lost his purpose to subdue and to have dominion. Colossians 1:13 tells us that there are two kingdoms: the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of the Son of God’s love.
When man disobeyed God, something happened. The world came under the kingdom of darkness. It was more than being driven out from the garden. The dominion of the earth that had been given to Adam and to man was forfeited to Satan. That is why Satan rules over this world.
If the story ended there, it would be a very sad story. But it does not end there.
God, in His faithfulness, sent His only beloved Son. He was born of the Spirit, very different from Adam and Eve. He was tempted, but He never sinned. Jesus was sinless and perfect, and He laid down His life on the cross.
Ephesians 1:20-21 tells us that the Father raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places:
Far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named,
not only in this age, but also in that which is to come.
Thank God for that. When man failed, it seemed that everything had ended. But God sent the second Man, the last Adam. He was sinless, He laid down His life, and the Father raised Him up and gave Him all authority and dominion.
The Lord Himself has been raised to heaven. He has dominion; He is reigning and ruling now. But that is not the end of the story.
Ephesians 2:6 says that God:
Raised us up with Him, and made us to sit with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus.
The “us” is the church. We are seated with Him in the heavenly places in Christ. This is key: by His mercy, God has put us in Christ Jesus. When Christ rules and reigns, we can rule and reign with Him positionally.
God’s purpose in creating man is recovered in the second Man, who rules and reigns according to God’s heart. What a privilege the church has—that we can rule and reign with Christ in this position. This is a marvellous thing. We are all sinners, yet by His grace, love, and power, He has seated us with Him. Can you imagine that?
Someone may ask, “If we are seated with Him in the heavenly places, why do we have so much trouble? Why has the Lord left us here?” I have several thoughts. They may not be complete, but I would like to offer them.
The first reason concerns the subduing of the enemy. Until the Lord comes again, this world remains under the domain of darkness.
Matthew 18:20 says:
For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.
This describes God’s people gathered together under His name. That is the church. But Matthew 18:18 also says:
Verily I say unto you, what things soever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven;
and what things soever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
The Lord leaves believers in the world so that the church may be here. He gives the church authority to bind and to loose—to subdue. We need to exercise this authority in prayer gatherings, that Satan’s work may be bound.
The second reason is on the personal level. Sometimes we think of reigning and ruling as a global matter concerning nations and Satan. That is true. But within us, as believers, we have something called the self-life and the flesh.
Even though we have been crucified with Christ, the self-life often rises up. It wants to be on top; it wants to have ascendancy. The flesh is a ground for the enemy. When the flesh rises up, that is how the enemy gains access to God’s people.
We are left in this world because there is still work to be done. We need to be open to the work of the cross in our lives, so that the self-life built into us may be subdued.
The third reason is that ruling and reigning, having dominion, is not child’s business. You do not want a two-year-old child to be king. There is much work to be done as far as maturity is concerned. We have to grow in Christ and become mature.
The last reason I can think of is that believers are meant to be light and life to this dark and dying world. This is the mission of the church: to bring light to the darkness and life to the dying world.
The Lord leaves us here to give us this commission, that we may share the gospel with the lost.
These are several reasons why we are still here. Ruling and reigning is contested; there is a struggle and a battle raging. We are meant to be seated with Him on the throne.
The next question is: How do we get to the throne in reality? How do we get to the throne in experience? Even though the church is positionally seated with Him, the pathway by which the Father brought His Son to the throne is the same pathway through which He teaches us.
We have read Philippians 2:5-11. This passage is a message and a lesson to us. How did the Lamb come to the throne?
The pathway for Jesus was down, down, down—all the way to the cross. Then, on the other side, the Father raised Him up, up, up, and gave Him the name above every name, at which every knee should bow.
The Son of God and the Father are one. Yet the Son did not consider equality with God something to be grasped. The Son was willing to place Himself under the Father. There was subjection. Christ was willing to subject Himself to God.
Verse 7 says that He took the form of a bondservant. A bondservant has no rights; a bondservant is totally devoted to his master. Because of the Son’s love for the Father, He was willing to be a bondservant. The second word is devotion: He was fully devoted to the Father.
Then He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death. This matter of obedience is absolutely critical. The Son, the Lamb, was absolutely obedient to the Father.
Finally, there is the cross. He was willing to lay down His life on the cross.
Because of these four things—subjection, devotion, obedience, and the cross—the Father raised Him up and gave Him authority over all things.
Someone said that to have authority is to be able to be subject to authority. I think that is a worthy statement. The Lamb was given authority because He was willing to subject Himself to the authority of His Father.
For us, we are not Christ. But I believe our pathway is in reverse order. Our starting point is the cross.
There are two sides to the cross. On the death side, everything that is not of the Lord is excluded. Just as natural man can never approach the throne, all that belongs to the old nature is terminated.
On the other side is resurrection. There is resurrection life, and Christ is our life. Everything that is of the Lord is included. The cross is a great separation between life and death, between what is not of the Lord and what is of the Lord.
We may ask why Adam and Eve did what they did. Romans 5:19 points us to the answer:
For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners,
even so through the obedience of the One shall the many be made righteous.
When I read Philippians, I feel that this matter of obedience is key to arriving at the throne. As far as Adam, the first man, was concerned, it was disobedience that disqualified him.
The Lord has to work in the reverse way, from the cross, to work obedience in us. Without obedience, we cannot be fully devoted to Him. Without obedience, we cannot be subject to Him. Obedience is the key to the throne.
There are people in the Bible who had the mind of Jesus—not Christ Himself, but people who had His mindset. We should be impressed by the believers in the early days after Jesus was taken up.
In Acts 1:4, the risen Lord commanded His people not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father. What did the believers do? They waited. They waited in Jerusalem.
Acts 1:14 tells us what they did there:
These all with one accord continued steadfastly in prayer,
with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brethren.
In obedience, they devoted themselves fully to prayer. Later in the same chapter, when they needed to choose someone to replace Judas as a witness, they set forward two men, but they did not make the choice themselves. They asked the Lord whom He had chosen. They were willing to be subject to the Lord.
This was the glorious beginning of the church. Later, persecution came through the Jewish religious system and through the political system of Rome. Yet this small group of people had a fire in their hearts.
Acts 12 gives us an interesting story. King Herod killed James and put Peter in prison. An angel came and released Peter from prison. Then Herod himself was struck by an angel.
But that is not the final answer. Acts 12:24 says:
But the word of God grew and multiplied.
That is reigning and ruling. That is subduing the enemy. We have a wonderful example of the pathway to rule and reign with Christ—not merely in the future, but now.
We need to say something about the self-life, the first Adam, and the nature of Adam. There are situations in which man, according to the Adamic nature, does not obey.
Saul, chosen by man as Israel’s king, was a natural man. His story reveals that natural man cannot obey God. It reveals to us that the self-life cannot obey God.
In 1 Samuel 15, the Lord sent Saul to fight Amalek. The command was to go and utterly destroy them—not partially, but completely.
Saul and the people won the battle. But when they saw the cattle, sheep, and other good things, they did not obey God. They did not completely destroy Amalek.
When Saul came back, Samuel heard the sound of sheep and cattle. Saul said that he had obeyed the voice of the Lord and had carried out the mission. But he blamed the people for taking the best of the spoil in order to sacrifice it to the Lord.
Samuel replied in 1 Samuel 15:22:
Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt-offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord?
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,
And to hearken than the fat of rams.
Obedience is what the Lord is after. That obedience is not found in the natural man. But thank God, it is found in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is in His life.
By ourselves, we can never obey spiritually. Galatians 2:20 says:
I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me:
and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith,
the faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself up for me.
Even though the self-life and natural life in us cannot obey, thank God for His life. The life of the Lamb can obey, and it is in us. By virtue of “no longer I who live, but Christ liveth in me,” we can have the mindset of Jesus.
I want to share a personal story very quickly. The Bible tells us that the Son has made us free. John 8:36 says:
If therefore the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.
We do have freedom in the Son. But several months ago—perhaps nine months ago; I do not remember exactly—my wife and I had been missing prayer meetings and fellowship meetings.
As a natural man, I said, “I am really tired. I have so much work. I cannot get out of work in time. Do I have to go? Does not the Lord give me freedom? If the Son makes me free, do I not have the freedom not to go?”
This question continued for some time until one morning the Lord said, “Yes, you have freedom. But you have to know that you do not have the freedom not to go.”
That really struck me. It was like the story of Saul—excuses. I had a lot of excuses.
Since that time, instead of complaining that the road conditions are bad, that it is raining outside, or that I am tired, I have said, “No, I have decided to go.”
Then I leave all the other matters—the road conditions, work, and tiredness—to the Lord Himself. I want to go, but He has to help me. Whatever needs to be done, I look to Him. I give the Lord responsibility to enable us to come.
The Lord Himself is faithful. In the last couple of months, thank the Lord, we have been able to come.
This may be only a side story, but perhaps it can help us in some way. Always remember: even though we are free, we are not free to disobey.
At the end, I want to tie this together: the throne, the Lamb on the throne, the purpose of God, and the matter of God building His house.
Matthew 16:18 says:
Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church;
and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
When we read Revelation 21 and 22, we come to the age of eternity. We see the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from heaven.
The Lord is doing a building work in these days. How is He building His church? I believe Philippians gives us the answer: “Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.”
For me, that is the hammer that strikes the nails. That is how He is building. He is working in us, through the work of the cross, the mindset and attitude of Christ.
He is working into us an obedient heart, a heart totally devoted to Him, and a heart subject to Him. He is working this in us.
Meanwhile, as we are in this world, He is doing eternal things. These are not merely the little things through which we pass each day. As He works, He is collecting the building materials for the new city and storing them in the heavens.
When the age of eternity comes, that beautiful city, New Jerusalem, will come upon this world to the glory of the Father.
This is the burden I want to share. We need to see the Lamb in the center of the throne and His desire for His people to rule and reign with Him.
It is more than whether our hearts are stirred. Are we open to Him? Are we making ourselves available to Him? Do we have this mindset of Jesus—to obey Him in everything? That is the key.
We opened today with the chorus, “Worthy is the Lamb.” I pray that “Worthy is the Lamb” would not be merely words, but would come from our hearts. He is worthy. He is worthy for us to subject ourselves to the work of the cross, so that we may have the mindset of Jesus.
May He indeed set His throne in our hearts and in our midst. Together, may we learn to rule and reign with Him now—not only in the future, though certainly in the future—but from now on and throughout the ages to come.
It is not really complicated, but every day the burden in my heart is obedience. I feel that this is the word of the Lord for us. Let us bow down.
Lord, we do praise You that You are the Lamb in the midst of the throne. How gracious You are, Lord, that You not only redeemed us and redeemed Your church, but You desire to share Your throne with Your people, that we may rule and reign with You from now on and forever.
Lord, we humble ourselves before Your purpose. It is the cry of our hearts: may Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. May Your will be done in the midst of us.
Lord, we pray that we would allow You to set Your throne and to rule and reign over us in everything. Open our eyes, Lord, that we may see how worthy You are, and that we may give ourselves back to You.
Lord, let the cross work deeply in our lives so that there may be the mindset of Jesus Christ. Lord, we know that we cannot do this, but You are the faithful One. You are able to work all these things into Your people if we allow You to have Your place.
Lord, we praise You for what You are going to do. We want to make ourselves available to You. May You be gracious, and may Your purpose be done. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.