The Lion of Judah

Revelation 5:5

“Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.”

Sermon Transcript:

My name is Pastor Jared and I, uh, have the privilege of speaking this morning. We’re gonna be reading in Revelations chapter five, verse five. If you want to turn with me there,

you don’t have your Bibles. It will be on the screen as well.

Revelations Chapter five, verse five says this, and one of the elders said to me, weep, no more behold the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David has conquered so that he can open the scroll and it’s seven seals. Would you join me in, in prayer again? God, thank you so much for who you are and thank you so much, um, that you have invited us into your worship this morning.

Lord. , um, that you’re a God that loves to hear our worship Lord, um, and that you’re our God so worthy of all the praise we could ever give you. Okay? I just want to echo the, the lyrics of that song, Lord, that we would make room for you this morning, Lord, that your spirit, um, would move this morning in our hearts and our minds, Lord, that you would make room in this message for your spirit to work God, that it would not be any words I say or anything like that, Lord, but that it would be your voice speaking and your scripture speaking Lord, and that you would put off any and all distractions coming into this Sunday, Lord, that we would hear your truth, and that it’ll cut through all the lies.

We love you Lord, and we give you praise this morning in Jesus’ name. Um, many of you know, I’m, I’m one of five brothers, so my house is, was always rowdy growing up, and, and I, I got a lot of stories from that, but I also have a pretty big, large, um, extended family. Um, one of my aunts has seven kids as well, so, and they live down in Virginia and one day they, uh, were visiting for the holidays and we decided it was a good idea to go, um, to the zoo.

So it’s seven of them and five of us. And God bless our parents for thinking they could handle all of that. And we go to, I think it was the Philadelphia Zoo or the K May Zoo and, and we’re going through and everyone’s having a good time. And my brother Josh had this hat that, like, he loved, he had this weird thing when he was younger where he would like find one piece of clothing that he would get obsessed with and like never take it off.

So this was like his new hat and he wore it every single day and he loved it. Um, and he was wearing it on that day. And my cousin, um, We’ll, we’ll say his name. His name is David. And hopefully he doesn’t watch this . He took my brother’s hat, my brother Josh’s hat, he took his hat and he’s like messing around with him like, oh, come get your habit.

Come get your hat. My brother Josh is like the oldest brother. He’s like The brother you don’t mess with. Right? Like everyone knows like you can pick on everyone else, but you don’t mess with Joshua. David didn’t really have that sense, you know? He didn’t have that sense of fear and he thought it’d be super funny to take Josh’s hat and throw it over one of the fences.

Right. Cuz that’s hilarious. You know, obviously we’ve all done that and the fence that he threw it over happened to be the lion enclosure. So that hat was gone, right? I mean, Josh was absolutely devastated. I don’t know how my cousin David is still alive to this day. From that moment between his dad and my brother.

I thought someone was gonna die. Right? But I mean, that hat was gone. Uh, no one dared to go into that lines then. No worker dared to, you know, sorry, the hat is gone. I don’t know why you threw it over in the first place. This kind of seems like your fault, right? But this morning we’re gonna be talking about a lion and the, we’re gonna be talking about the lion of Judah, right?

Someone that is so fierce and powerful that no one would dare approach, right? That we know of all who is capable. And I wanna look at just the exact, um, just context of this verse and revelation and kind of what’s going on. Pastor Mark did a really good job last week of just kind of explaining the immediate context, because when we read the book of Revelation, I don’t know why I separate it in my mind, but I forget that it’s written to churches, right?

This was a letter written to encourage churches. Many of these churches were going through difficult times. They were facing persecution from Roman leaders and, and I mean severe persecution. And John is writing this letter to them to encourage them, to give them hope, and not just a fleeting hope or fleeting joy, but a eternal hope and joy.

And he, he’s talking about this, this lying of the tribe of Judah, the root of David. Right. And he’s saying to open this scroll. And maybe you’re wondering why, why is this scroll important or why are we talking about this scroll and why is John weeping here? If you back up a couple verses, it’s talking about an angel actually says, who is worthy on heaven and on earth to open this scroll?

And no one answers. So John is weeping and one of the elder says to him, don’t weep. There is one who is worthy to open the scroll. It is the lion of the tribe of Judah. And and there’s a lot of debate, um, about what this scroll might be. Some people think it was the, the scroll that was actually revelations written down.

Some people think it was the Old Testament. Some people think it was the Old Testament of the New Testament, its entirety for the first time. Um, but kind of after my studying and, and looking really diving deeper into this passage, I saw that it was really, I think it was the will of God, the final will of God, that only Jesus was able to open.

The only Jesus is able to know and see. And, and Noah was in there and, and if you disagree with me, that’s okay. We can fight after the service. Right. So now we know the, the stage is set. This is what was going on. That this, there’s only one worthy to open this scroll. It’s, it’s a line of Judah, the, the root of David.

But I mean, the line of Judah sounds cool. We just sang about it. But if we don’t look at the significance of what that means and what is going on, we kind of miss the meaning. So I want to go through of what that actually means to be from the tribe of Judah and what the significance of the lion really is.

So I wanna look at, uh, we’re gonna go all the way back to Genesis chapter 49, and I just wanna explain what is happening in this passage. So if you remember Jacob or Israel, he went by both names at this point is talking to his 12 sons and he’s actually prophesying over them. And this is actually the first prophecy recorded, um, in scripture from a man directly to someone else.

And he’s talking to his 12 sons and he’s talking about what is gonna happen. To his 12 sons, the blessings or the curses, though it received. But prophetically speaking, he’s speaking to the future. He’s speaking that these 12 sons of him, of his would become the 12 tribes of Jerusalem. So not only is he talking to his sons, but he’s talking to what is going to happen to these tribes of Jerusalem, or excuse me, Israel.

So he is talking to them and we pick up in verse eight when he is talking to his son, Judah. And he says this, Judah, your brother shall praise you. Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies. Your father’s son shall bow down before you. Judah is a lions cub from the prey. My son, you have gone up. He stooped down.

He crouch, says a lion. And as a lion as who dares Ros him, the setter shall not depart from Judah nor the ruler staff from between his feet. Until tribute comes to him and to him shall be the obedience of the people. Man, there’s so much in these couple verses here. I mean, if you read the other blessings and, and, and what Jacob was saying and some, this is a really good one.

Some of them were not great. Some of them did not get a good blessing like this. But Judah is receiving this blessing that actually would be the first son’s blessing. Judah’s not the first son. The first son was Ruben. Um, he did not receive the first son’s blessing. Judah did. Judah would now be responsible to be the head of the family.

He now was responsible to take up the leadership that his father Jacob was taking, that he was in charge of his family, that he was leading his family, that he’d get a double portion of the inherit. and we see this in, in verse eight. It says, your brothers will praise you. We know that when Judah’s born, he was named Judah because it literally means praise to praise, right?

This was a prophetically speaking that he would be praised, that his brothers would praise you. God put in charge not only Judah of his brothers, but he put the tribe of Judah in charge of the other tribes. This was gonna be the leader of Israel. Whoever was gonna come from the tribe of Judah was gonna be responsible for the kingship for it says the scepter would never leave this tribe, right?

God chose specifically the tribe of Judah for this. And although God used this to, to prophesize about the Tri Judah, this actually would not come to fruition for 640 years. . So God is telling Judah this, and, and he’s speaking prophetically through Jacob to his son Judah, saying that, that Israel’s gonna, your brothers are gonna praise you.

The rest of the tribes are gonna praise you. And he’s probably like, man, this is awesome. This can be a, the great rest of my life, my, my sons and my ancestors will, will have the best lives ever. This would not come for 640 years until David took up the mantle of King. Right? How wild is that, that the Lord was working in and through Jacob and through Judah, but it wouldn’t come to fruition until 640 years, until we know King David was so that he would become king.

Right? We know that, that David was in the line of Judah and we know that God established a covenant with David. God said, I’m going to make a kingship out of your family, that your ancestors, that you’ll, this kingship will never depart from your family. , and this was true all throughout. Judah was in the line of the kingship.

And, and David’s line continued on and on. But if you look at to the time of Jesus, many of the Jews were very distraught. They didn’t realize what was going on because in this promise here it says the scepter would not depart. It says in verse 10, the scep shall not depart from Judah. The Scep symbolizes this kingship over Israel.

Um, David’s line, like I said, continued on through Israel, but when Jesus came to earth, there was no Jews in power anymore. Herod had some power over them. The Romans had the power over, and the Jews actually thought the CEP has the part from the line of Judah. We no longer have this kingship. We no longer have this prop that God spoke over our tribe.

Where is our kingship? And it wasn’t until Jesus was born. 1600 years later from this prophecy that this was ultimately fulfilled in Jesus. That he was from the line of, uh, Judah, that his mother, Jesus, or sorry, sorry, his mother, Mary and his father, who wasn’t actually his biological father, Joseph was even in the line of Judah.

They were in this kingship line. Jesus had the right to the throne. He was in the right family. He had the right ancestors. The king, the scepter belonged to him. He was deserving to be king, and people knew that when he came on earth that he was going to be king. Now, if you look in verse 10, in the esv, it says, nor the ruler staff from between his feet until tribute comes to.

And then this might sound like confusing, like who we’re talking about this, him what? His tribute, what does this mean? Um, if you look at the original Hebrew as I was playing around with different translations, the actual Hebrew there for him it says Shiloh, right? Shiloh was a place in Israel and it’s referred to as such all throughout the Old Testament, except for one specific time.

And it’s in this passage it’s talking about until Shiloh comes. Well, if you look at the Hebrew of what that means, it actually means for it is to he who belongs, right? He who’s it is that which belongs to him. , that’s what this word means for Shiloh is, is commonly used from the Jews for to refer to the Messiah here.

And we now our eyes are open to see. Wow. This is not talking about just Judah. This is not talking about just his tribe. This is speaking of something greater and bigger to come. And that is the line of Judah. That is Jesus. I love the way, um, the NLT puts verse 10. It says, the scepter will not depart from Judah nor the ruler staff from his descendants until the coming of the one to Himm whom it belongs, the one whom all nations will honor.

The scepter belonged to Jesus. The scepter belonged to the line of Judah. It was rightfully his, although this was prophesied 1600 years prior to Christ coming on earth. This is important because Jesus had the right to the throne. that not only is he in the line of Judah, he is the Messiah, the one for told of the true fulfillment and ultimate fulfillment, the one who would come and conquer and bring obedience to all people, all tribes, nations, tongues.

We can’t even understand who the line of Judah is until we understand the significance of being in the line of Judah. The, the Bible is a beautiful thing like this. We can sometimes gloss over things, and when we look into the true significance into the true meaning, it brings out deeper meaning, right?

That if we say, oh, he is the line of the tribe. Judah, okay, Judah is a cool name. No. This had significance of where and what line and what family Jesus came through, that the scepter was no longer gonna pass from Judah, that it was gonna be prophesized and ultimately fulfilled through Jesus. . Now that we understand that significance of what that line of Judah means, we kind of have to understand the significance of why a lion, right?

We know why he is from the tribe of Judah, but why a lion? I mean, why couldn’t it be the pigeon of Judah, you know, like the, the grasshopper of Judah or like maybe the spider monkey of Judah. That kind of sounds cool. Like I could get behind a spider monkey, God, you know, like, but it wasn’t any of those.

And I’m kind of glad that I don’t serve a pigeon God. You know, I, I, I’m really happy that my God fighting for me is a lion. Amen. Not a pigeon, you know, not a grasshopper. That he is a lion that goes before me. That he is someone to be feared, glorified, praised, and that that lion is on my side. A lion symbolizes unstoppable power, fierceness, beauty majesty.

The line is the top of the food chain. He’s the head honcho. It’s the reason why you don’t get your hat when you throw it into the line enclosure. If it was in the beaver enclosure, like, ah, yeah, we’ll get it. You know, I don’t think the pigeons have enclosure in the zoo. I’m not sure. Think they just hang out in Philly most often.

Right? But they’re the kings of the jungle. They’re not to be messed with a lion’s roar can be heard from five miles away. They know that animals know when a lion is around, where their territory is. I think one of the most beautiful pictures of, of Jesus as the lion of Judah, and, and what even that could possibly look like for us is in, in the, the books and, uh, the, the, the, A movie of Narnia who, who has read the book or seen the movie of Narnia?

Okay, cool, cool. So I, I, I recently just watched it over again cause I just wanted to see and just remember the story. But I mean, Aslan, right? Aslan is this great line, the true king of Narnia. And if you remember the story, it’s following these four siblings and they’re going out and they’ve lost their friend Edmond.

And, and now they’re gonna soon lose their, their brother or sorry, not their friend. What’s it? Thomas? Thomas. They lose their brother Edmond. And everyone’s saying, you gotta find Aslan. You gotta find Aslan. Linn’s the true king of Narnia. And all they know at this point is this wicked witch of the North and, and how she’s gonna come up and how scary she is and how she let our brother away.

And they’re saying you have to find as. The true king. And there’s just these whispers about him and these legends about him. And, and one of the quotes that just really stood out to me is when they’re talking these two beavers that are helping them, and they’re, they’re talking about Aslan and they’re asking questions, oh, is he good?

Is he, is he safe? Is is, is he true? Is he real? And the beaver says, don’t you hear what Mr. Mrs. Beaver tells you who said anything about safe Course he isn’t safe, but he’s good. He’s the king, I tell you. Right. This was the legend of Aslan. Of course he’s not safe. He’s a lion. He’s dangerous, he’s powerful, but it’s good.

And he’s our king and he’s on our side. And the story continues and they’re, they’re leading into the journey of Aslan, and they find where he is in camp, and there’s this whole army assembled against the, the witch, right? There’s this whole army and they go to meet Aslan. And Aslan comes out of the tent.

And what does everyone do? They drop down immediately in the presence of just seeing Aslan and the, the siblings who don’t really know what’s going on, they, they’re looking around, they see, and they drop right away, kneeling before they’re king, kneeling before the great might of Aslan. This is our God, right?

This is Jesus. This is Jesus, the great lion of Judah, who deserves all our praise, all our, our reverence and respect, all our fear. And yet we don’t have to fear because he’s on our side. And as the story goes on, you kind of see the, the kids as they’re a little scared and anxious to approach Aslan. As the movie goes on, you see them walking with him, hugging him, petting his mane.

Going out before him talking face to face with him. This is our God. Of course he’s not safe, but he’s good and he’s on our side. All these legendary stories were true. Our lion of Judah, so majestic and powerful that every knee should bow before him. This is why titles and names are so important cuz when we dive into the meaning and discover what this is, we realize just the beauty and the power of our God, of our king Jesus.

This is who the lion of Judah is. He ha his, the scepter belonged to him. The one who to whom it belongs has come. He is the line of Judah. He is fierce. He is beautiful, he is majestic, and he’s our lion. So what does this mean, right? If Jesus is the line of Judah, what does this mean for me? How does this affect my life?

It’s cool. It’s fun to watch Narnia. It’s a good movie, but what does it mean to me? Most importantly, it means Jesus is king of my life, right? Jesus is king of my life, and I need to surrender to the mighty lion. It means if Jesus is king over my life, then he has authority over my life. If someone is a king, you, you pay your allegiance to them.

The people of Narnia knew who the real king was. They knew it was Aslan, and they bowed before him. They served him. They went out to battle for him. If Jesus is our king, he has authority over every aspect of our life. For those of us who have confessed Jesus as Lord, then we’ve confessed him as king. And I think it’s so hard to understand why we say Jesus is Lord.

Right? We don’t use that terminology very often, Lord. Um, but this idea of Lord, it’s, it’s a king. It means Jesus is king, right? When you’re saying Jesus is Lord of my life, it’s saying, Jesus is king of my life. It’s saying Jesus has every authority over every aspect of my life. That every part of my life, not just on Sundays, is surrendered to Jesus, our king.

That means my pride is surrendered to him. That means my finances are surrendered, and that means my skills and my abilities are surrendered over the King Jesus, the line of Judah. God is not just king over our life on Sunday mornings. He’s not just king over our life at Bible study or when we’re with our Christian friends.

He wants all of us. . He wants every aspect of life. He wants you and he’s king over you, and he has the authority over you. When you’re home alone scrolling on your phone, he’s, he’s king over what you post on social media. I know I said it. Social media. Sorry. Right. He’s king over how you talk at work, how you treat your coworkers.

He’s king over how you talk to your wife and your husband, and your kids and your neighbors. When you go to work, when you’re in school, and how you talk to teachers or people and authority to you and how you respond to them. He has authority over every aspect of your life. And if he really is the lion of Judah, if he really is our king, then he deserves it.

He deserves our respect. He deserves our praise. He deserves our service to him. He deserves full surrender. God has often described in the Old Testament as a jealous God. He wants our full hearts. He doesn’t want you half of the week. He doesn’t want you one day of the week. He wants every single day. He wants every thought to be captive to him.

He wants every action to be captive to him. We’re so good at compartmentalizing things and saying, God, you know, you can have this aspect of my life. You know, I’m gonna do this, you know, I’m gonna give you this and this. Now I’ll give you my family, but my finances, I, I just kind of like to control those. I kind of just feel a little better when I’m in control of those, you know, when my relationship and my, my pursuit of marriage or, or whatever it may be.

And I, I, I got that. God, don’t worry. I don’t think, you know, my type right, or whatever it may be. God wants all of it. He is the lion of Judah. He demands it. And even in the midst of that, while we’re, we were still his enemies, he went after us, he pursued us, and he conquered our sin and shame. If Jesus is the line of Judah, what does it mean to me?

It means he’s king of my life. It means he’s king of my family, and I should live in that surrender and I should live under his authority in my life. If Jesus is the line of Judah in my life, how does this affect my fears, worries, doubts, anxieties. Well, the good news is the lion is on our side. When the beaver was talking about, um, Aslan, he said, of course he’s not safe, but he’s good.

Right? Of course, our God is powerful, but he’s on our side. There’s no longer any room to be afraid. Isaiah 31 4 says this. It says, for thus, the Lord said to me as a lion or a young lion growls over his prey. And when a band of shepherds is called against him, he’s not terrified by their shouting or daunted at their noise.

So the Lord of hosts will come down to fight on Mount Zion and on its hill. God is not scared of what you’re scared of. God does not have doubts like we have doubts. He does not have any insecurities. God is fighting for you. He’s going to battle for you. So when we’re scared and we have doubts and we’re overcome with the stress or the anxieties of life, or our mental health seems too big to handle, know that the lion of Judah is fighting for you.

He has you. He’s going before. And when we’re fixated on him, right? And when we see him in all his beauty and power and love, our fears, our insecurities, our worries, our anxieties start to get smaller and smaller because we know who’s on our side. It’s not just Jared going out the battle, swinging fist, and trying to fight.

It’s the lion of Judah. This is why we have confidence. This is why the Bible says do not fear because we have someone who is gone out before us. And when he roars, let our enemies know who’s on our side. Let the lies in our head know who’s on our side, that the lion of Judah is fighting for you. He’s fighting for me.

He’s going out. He’s not scared. Whoever goes against him, he does not have fear. We need to keep our gaze and our eyes fixate on him and who he is. This is our line. This is the line of Judah. This is why we have confidence and I’ll know this is all immediate things, right? I want to get back to the book of Revelation and, and what John is doing here.

He’s giving hope. He’s giving joy to these people. And no, it’s not just a momentary thing and no, it’s not just in the moment. Quick confidence. Okay, I’m good. He’s giving them something eternal to hold onto and although we can look now and we can see the line of Judah and how he conquered our sin and how he pulled us out of darkness, he is coming again.

The lion of Judah. Jesus is coming and he’s gonna take up his throne and the earth is gonna be his foot. So this is the hope that we hold onto not just some momentary thing to get us through tomorrow, but that one day the lion of Judah is going to come again and he’s gonna conquer all things. And the book of Revelation says that every nation, every tongue, and every tribe will worship him.

That will come and says Judah And, and, and Genesis foretold of this, that he would bring obedience to the people that every knee will bow before him. We live in this already, not yet state, right? We’re dead. This sin, the God has conquered our lives and. When Christ comes again, we will be fully redeemed and glorified in him.

We have hope and we have joy, but when Christ comes again, we will have that in its entirety. This is hope. This is real joy that Christ is bringing something that this world does not offer us, that this world could never offer us. This is the hope that we have. This is the joy that we can hold onto. The scepter has not departed from him.

He’s coming back. He’s bringing joy. He’s bringing peace. He’s bringing his power that every knee will bow before him. I wanna close with one more quote from Narnia about Aslan. It says this, it’s the Golden Age prophecy about Aslan. Wrong will be right. When Aslan comes in sight at the sound of his roar, sorrows will be no more.

When he bears his teeth, winter meets its death. And when he shakes his mane, we shall have spring again. Laura, we come before you God. And I know for me, Lord, I’m absolutely humbled that you as the line of Judah came after me, Lord, that you’re on my side and you’re fighting Lord. And that feels me with abundance of confidence when I go against my problems, Lord.

And I pray as I approach this week and as we go out and approach this week, Lord, and and fears start to pile up and lies start to pile up. Lord, remember, just remind us of who’s fighting for us. Remind us that you have sent someone out your son before us. to fight our battles that you have not left us alone.

That you, you’ve sent someone the lion of Judah Lord. And we know, and we live in this already, not yet state of, of the frustration that can become the battle between our flesh and sin and the spirit and and what you’ve done already, Lord. But we look forward to what you will do when you come, Lord, there will be no more tears.

You’ll wipe all away sorrow. We’ll be filled completely with your love and your joy and your peace God. And we long for that day. We worship you this morning, Lord. I’m gonna give you praise and Jesus’ name. Amen. Amen.