Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction:

Illustration-

The story has been told of an orphaned boy who was living with his grandmother when their house caught fire.

The grandmother, trying to get upstairs to rescue the boy, died in the flames.

The boy’s cries for help were finally answered by a man who climbed an iron drain pipe and came down with the boy hanging tightly to his neck.

Several weeks later, a public hearing was held to determine who would receive custody of the child.

A farmer, a teacher, and the town’s wealthiest citizen all gave the reasons they felt they should be chosen to give the boy a home.

As they talked, the lad’s eyes remained focused on the floor.

Then a stranger walked to the front and slowly took his hands from his pockets, revealing scars on them.

As the crowd gasped, the boy cried out in recognition.

This was the man who had saved his life and whose hands had been burned when he climbed the hot pipe.

With a leap the boy threw his arms around the man’s neck and held on for dear life.

The other men silently walked away, leaving the boy and his rescuer alone.

Those marred hands had settled the issue.1117

[Michael P. Green, 1500 Illustrations for Biblical Preaching (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2000), 298.]

[Michael P. Green, 1500 Illustrations for Biblical Preaching (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2000), 298.]

Main Thought: When the Lamb is in your midst, you cannot help but sing for who He is and what He does!

When the Lamb is in your midst, you cannot help but sing for who He is and what He does!

Sub-intro:

Context - As John wept over the helplessness and seeming hopelessness of all that he believed about God’s plan of redemption being potentially thwarted, he was compassionately counseled to look to Christ by one of the elders.

Now we join in as John beholds in amazement while the Lamb is worshipped in the courts of heaven.

As we study these verses, notice some simple but profound truths concerning where the Lamb is, what He looks like, what He does, and why it evoked the response of worship that it did.

Body:

I.

The Lamb Positioned in their Midst (v.

6a).

Note - This entire paragraph (vv.

6-10) centers around the Lamb.

Note where He is - in the midst… of the throne, angelic representatives (beasts), and the representatives of the redeemed (elders).

II.

The Lamb Possessing Power & Ministry (v.

6b).

Note how He looks and what He possesses -

standing as it had been slain -

The word from which this phrase is translated (sfazw sphadzo) is conjugated as a perfect, passive, participle.

Thus, the thought is that John saw the Lamb of God ‘having been slain.’

His substitutionary death is apparent.

Moreover, the fact He was alive and standing in heaven clearly bespeaks His resurrection and ascension.

[David H. Sorenson, Understanding the Bible, An Independent Baptist Commentary - Hebrews through Revelation, vol.

11, Understanding the Bible, An Independent Baptist Commentary (Northstar Ministries, 2007), 400.]

The word from which this phrase is translated (sfazw sphadzo) is conjugated as a perfect, passive, participle.

Thus, the thought is that John saw the Lamb of God ‘having been slain.’

His substitutionary death is apparent.

Moreover, the fact He was alive and standing in heaven clearly bespeaks His resurrection and ascension.

[David H. Sorenson, Understanding the Bible, An Independent Baptist Commentary - Hebrews through Revelation, vol.

11, Understanding the Bible, An Independent Baptist Commentary (Northstar Ministries, 2007), 400.]

David H. Sorenson, Understanding the Bible, An Independent Baptist Commentary - Hebrews through Revelation, vol.

11, Understanding the Bible, An Independent Baptist Commentary (Northstar Ministries, 2007), 400.]

a

The revelator John gave two characteristics about the Lamb, saying that it “stood…as it had been slain” ....

Although a slain but standing sacrificial lamb is a physical conundrum, the vision obviously referred to the resurrected Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ.

John referred to the ἀρνίον ἑστηκὸς in , as well.

The perfect participle from ἵστημι denotes the Lamb’s habitual and permanent standing, as a living but slain sacrifice.

The seer used the perfect participle from σφάζω... to reveal the Lamb had been slain, by the cutting its throat as it were, denoting that Christ’s death was as the “sheep for the slaughter”…, as Paul declared (cf.

).

Both perfect participles, ἑστηκὸς and ἐσφαγμένον, denote the theologically significant truths that the Lamb was still standing with the permanent marks of His crucifixion.

John recorded these same truths in the pericope of doubting Thomas, which conversation he revealed, saying, “Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe...Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing.”

(, ).

[Thomas M. Strouse, To the Seven Churches: A Commentary on the Apocalypse of Jesus Christ, Selected Works of Dr. Thomas M. Strouse (Bible Baptist Theological Press, 40 Country Squire Rd., Cromwell, CT 06461, 2013), 236–237.]

[Thomas M. Strouse, To the Seven Churches: A Commentary on the Apocalypse of Jesus Christ, Selected Works of Dr. Thomas M. Strouse (Bible Baptist Theological Press, 40 Country Squire Rd., Cromwell, CT 06461, 2013), 236–237.]

791 The verb sfa,zw (cf.

its noun sfagh) is the root behind the English esophagus (“entrance for eating”) and occurs 9x in Revelation (, , ; , ; , ; ).

The Apostle John recorded its other use giving the truth that Cain apparently slit the throat of Abel in defiance to the Lord’s animal sacrifice requirement (; cf. ).

ἀρνίον ἑστηκὸς in , as well.

The perfect participle from ísthmi denotes the Lamb’s habitual and permanent standing, as a living but slain sacrifice.

The seer used the perfect participle from sfa,zw791 to reveal the Lamb had been slain, by the cutting its throat as it were, denoting that Christ’s death was as the “sheep for the slaughter” (pro,bata sfagh/j), as Paul declared (cf.

).

Both perfect participles, e`sthko.j

and evsfagme,non, denote the theologically significant truths that the Lamb was still standing with the permanent marks of His crucifixion.

John recorded these same truths in the pericope of doubting Thomas, which conversation he revealed, saying, “Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe...Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing.”

(, ).

[Thomas M. Strouse, To the Seven Churches: A Commentary on the Apocalypse of Jesus Christ, Selected Works of Dr. Thomas M. Strouse (Bible Baptist Theological Press, 40 Country Squire Rd., Cromwell, CT 06461, 2013), 236–237.]

ἐσφαγμένον, denote the theologically significant truths that the Lamb was still standing with the permanent marks of His crucifixion.

John recorded these same truths in the pericope of doubting Thomas, which conversation he revealed, saying, “Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe...Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing.”

(, ).

[Thomas M. Strouse, To the Seven Churches: A Commentary on the Apocalypse of Jesus Christ, Selected Works of Dr. Thomas M. Strouse (Bible Baptist Theological Press, 40 Country Squire Rd., Cromwell, CT 06461, 2013), 236–237.]

[Thomas M. Strouse, To the Seven Churches: A Commentary on the Apocalypse of Jesus Christ, Selected Works of Dr. Thomas M. Strouse (Bible Baptist Theological Press, 40 Country Squire Rd., Cromwell, CT 06461, 2013), 236–237.]

having seven horns and seven eyes -

Horns = Omnipotence

The “seven horns” may be an antitypical reference to another Joshua (The name Joshua, of course, is the same as Jesus).

When the children of Israel first entered the land of Canaan to claim it for their own as God had promised, they encountered a wicked city barring their way.

When in accord with God’s command, the priests took “seven trumpets of ram’s horns,” the walls of Jericho tumbled down and the city and its alien inhabitants were destroyed.

Thus, these “seven horns” on the Lamb may well have recalled to John the seven ram’s horns of Joshua, and their effectiveness in enabling the people of God to enter on their inheritance in God’s land of promise.

Further, their use as trumpets surely reminded John also of the trumpet that had called him up to God’s throne.

Thus the seven horns and seven eyes on the heavenly Lamb would call to John’s remembrance all the great promises of salvation, both to Israel and to the whole world.

In fact Jesus Himself is called “an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David” ().

[Henry M. Morris, The Revelation Record: A Scientific and Devotional Commentary on the Prophetic Book of the End Times (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale, 1983), 101.]

The “seven horns” may be an antitypical reference to another Joshua (The name Joshua, of course, is the same as Jesus).

When the children of Israel first entered the land of Canaan to claim it for their own as God had promised, they encountered a wicked city barring their way.

When in accord with God’s command, the priests took “seven trumpets of ram’s horns,” the walls of Jericho tumbled down and the city and its alien inhabitants were destroyed.

Thus, these “seven horns” on the Lamb may well have recalled to John the seven ram’s horns of Joshua, and their effectiveness in enabling the people of God to enter on their inheritance in God’s land of promise.

Further, their use as trumpets surely reminded John also of the trumpet that had called him up to God’s throne.

Thus the seven horns and seven eyes on the heavenly Lamb would call to John’s remembrance all the great promises of salvation, both to Israel and to the whole world.

In fact Jesus Himself is called “an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David” ().

[Henry M. Morris, The Revelation Record: A Scientific and Devotional Commentary on the Prophetic Book of the End Times (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale, 1983), 101.]

Thus the seven horns and seven eyes on the heavenly Lamb would call to John’s remembrance all the great promises of salvation, both to Israel and to the whole world.

In fact Jesus Himself is called “an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David” ().

[Henry M. Morris, The Revelation Record: A Scientific and Devotional Commentary on the Prophetic Book of the End Times (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale, 1983), 101.]

Henry M. Morris, The Revelation Record: A Scientific and Devotional Commentary on the Prophetic Book of the End Times (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale, 1983), 101.]

Eyes = Omniscience

The ever-present ministry of the Holy Spirit in the earth

III.

The Lamb Procured the Book (v. 7).

Rev.

Note what the Lamb significantly did - He came… He took...