Blake Jennings

Grace Bible Church

“Help for the Merry-less”

Revelation 4-5

Christmas for so many of us is not a time of joy but a time of busyness, stress, discouragement, and even grief. Yet as Revelation chapters 4 and 5 help us understand, no one has ever experienced a worse Christmas than Jesus did! He exchanged the beauty, bliss, and perfection of heaven for the humiliation, pain, and suffering of His life among us. And as a result, if Christmas this year finds you less than joyful, then turn to Him who perfectly understands your pain and who has proved His infinite love for you by experiencing His own "worst Christmas!"

The Setting – chapter 4

Ÿ “on the throne”

Then I noticed from the appearance of His loins and upward something like glowing metal that looked like fire all around within it, and from the appearance of His loins and downward I saw something like fire; and there was a radiance around Him. As the appearance of the rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day…

—Ezekiel 1:27-28

“I kept looking until thrones were set up, And the Ancient of Days took His seat; His vesture was like white snow and the hair of His head like pure wool. His throne was ablaze with flames, Its wheels were a burning fire.

—Daniel 7:9

…He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen.

—1 Timothy 6:15b-16

Ÿ “before the throne”

Ÿ “around the throne”

The Main Event – chapter 5

Ÿ Problem: No one worthy

Ÿ Solution: Lion who is a Lamb

Ÿ Response: Worship

“Man’s maker was made man that He, Ruler of the stars, might nurse at His mother's breast; that the Bread might hunger, the Fountain thirst, the Light sleep, the Way be tired on its journey; that Truth might be accused of false witness, the Teacher be beaten with whips, the Foundation be suspended on wood; that Strength might grow weak; that the Healer might be wounded; that Life might die.”

—Augustine

Encouragement

1. Know that you’re not alone

Heb 4:14-16

2. Know that He loves you infinitely