Victory Through The Lamb: A Guide to Revelation in Plain Language

Jesus is called the lamb 29 times in Revelation.

Revelation made easy. Reading or studying Revelation has always felt daunting and overwhelming to many Christians. But Mark Wilson has written "a guide to Revelation in plain language," as the title states. In the non-technical language of non-seminarians, Wilson explains Revelation's many intriguing mysteries, which is so characteristic of apocalyptic literature. Most of the confusing signs, symbols and varied imagery of Revelation find its origins from the Old Testament. Victory Through The Lamb is readable, understandable and insightful, even for those who have not previously read or studied Revelation.

Martyrdom. Each and every chapter begins with a martyr account, followed by Wilson's own English translation of the Greek text of Revelation. The martyr stories are gut wrenching, in particular the recent martyrdom of three Christians in eastern Turkey in the city of Malatya on April 18, 2007. This shocked Turkey's small Christian community as well as many Turkish citizens. Wilson and his wife have lived in Turkey since 2004 and were able to attend their funeral, together with many other Christians from around Turkey. The vivid stories of these and earlier martyrdoms set the mood of the reader into the correct frame of mind for understanding and interpreting Revelation.

A Lamb Bound By His Four Feet

Are you wounded more than this lamb that is bound by his four feet?

We are wounded when we give in to the perpetual sinful desires raging in our own hearts. But our wounds are also inflicted by others: our parents, our family, our friends, and even by Christians in the church who believe in God and believe the Bible.

As frail and fallible humans, we have a terribly hard time truly forgiving others, or letting go of the hurts and wounds that are deeply embedded in us. In fact, I'm convinced that we can't do it by our own human strength.

I've spoken to so many young adults who were so brutally traumatized by their parent's divorce, which they experienced personally as a betrayal of the deepest cut. Surprisingly (but perhaps not so), I am also beginning to hear of those who were terribly wounded by Christians who believe in God and who believe in the Bible.

Sometimes, it's hard for me to figure out which wound is deeper: those inflicted by your own family, or by your church family.

This is one of our human dilemmas. We love our family, but we were terribly hurt by them. We love our church family, but we were also terribly hurt by them. What is the solution or the resolution?

I think the answer is in this picture of the lamb who was bound by his four feet.

When I thought of what would happen to the lamb after he was bound, I shuddered and broke down. After the butchers do to the lamb what they normally do would cause the lamb to no longer look so cute and so lovely. He would become an unrecognizable, disfigured, bloody mess.

Jesus is that lamb. Jesus is the kernel of wheat that fell to the ground and died (John 12:24). He wasn't forced to do so, but did so willingly (John 10:18). Why? Here are some answers:

• He had to be cursed by God in our place (Gal 3:13).
  
• He became our sin in the presence of God (2 Cor 5:21).
  
• He bore our sins in his own body and was mortally wounded in our place (Isa 53:5; 1 Pet 2:24).
• He had to suffer and be put to death for our sins (1 Pet 3:18).

We may never be fully free of the inflicted wounds in our soul this side of heaven. But there is only One who received a far deeper wound. And only by his wounds are we healed.

How have you been wounded? Do you find peace and healing in the Lamb?

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14) The Feast (Mark 14:12-26)

Chap 1: The Dance (Trinity) (Mark 1:9-11): Do you expect others to dance around you?
Chap 2: The Gospel, The Call (Mark 1:14-20): Is your gospel good news or good advice?
Chap 3: The Healing (Mark 2:1-5): Are your sins against God or people (Ps 51:4)?
Chap 4: The Rest (Mark 2:23-3:6): Why are you desperately seeking significance?
Chap 5: The Power (Mark 4:35-41): Do you have calm in a storm?
Chap 6: The Waiting (Mark 5:21-43): Are you at peace when God delays?
Chap 7: The Stain (Mark 7:1-23): Do you feel unclean, insignificant?
Chap 8: The Approach (Mark 7:24-37): Do you know you’re a dog, yet loved?
Chap 9: The Turn (Mark 8:27-9:1): Why is forgiveness so hard?
Chap 10: The Mountain (Mark 9:2-29): What if you are filled with doubt?
Chap 11: The Trap (Mark 10:17-27): Is money just money to you?
Chap 12: The Ransom (Mark 10:45): Is Jesus all you want and need?
Chap 13: The Temple (Mark 11:1-18): Are you both a lion and a lamb?

Quotes:

"On the cross Jesus got what we deserved: the sin, guilt, and brokenness of the world fell upon him. He loved us so much he took divine justice on himself so that we could be passed over, forever." (168)


Intro: Being saved from the sword of divine justice during the Passover was not on the basis of being a Jew, but only on the basis of faith in a substitutionary sacrifice (lamb). But why in the world would the sacrifice of a woolly little quadruped exempt you from justice?

This is my Body, This is my Blood

The Passover meal had to be prepared in a certain way and had a distinct form. It included 4 points where the presider explained the feast's meaning. The 4 cups of wine represented the 4 promises made by God in Exo 6:6-7:

• rescue from Egypt
• freedom from slavery
• redemption by God's divine power
• renewed relationship with God
  

For the 3rd cup, the presider would use Deut 26:1-19 to bless the elements--the bread (representing their affliction - Deut 26:6), herbs, lamb--by explaining how they were symbolic reminders of their captivity and deliverance. Jesus was the presider at this Passover meal with the disciples who had prepared for it (Mark 14:12-16). But when blessing the elements and explaining their symbolism, Jesus departs from the script that has been reenacted by generation after generation (Mark 14:22-25), which likely astonished the disciples. He shows them the bread and says, "This is my body" (Mark 14:22). What does this mean? Jesus is saying, "This is the bread of my affliction, the bread of my suffering, because I'm going to lead the ultimate exodus and bring you the ultimate deliverance from bondage."

In ancient times, to say, "I will not drink...until..." (Mark 14:25) was to make an oath (Acts 23:14) that was taken very seriously and was literally marked with blood. It was a solemn relationship of obligation, like making a covenant, like signing a contract. But this covenant was established and sealed by killing an animal, cutting it in half, and walking between the pieces as you stated your oath (Gen 15:10,17). It's gory and repulsive. But it was a way of saying, "If I do not fulfill my promise, may my blood be spilled, may I be cut in half." This was akin to what Jesus said when he took the cup (Mark 14:23-25).

Jesus' words mean that as a result of his substitutionary sacrifice there is now a new covenant between God and us, the basis being his own blood (Mark 14:24). Jesus is promising to be unconditionally committed to bring us back to his kingdom (Matt 8:11), that we will be at this kingdom feast with him. With these simple words, "This is my body...this is my blood" (Mark 14:22,24), Jesus is saying that all the earlier deliverances, the earlier sacrifices, the lambs at Passover, were pointing to himself.

Jesus is the Main Course

All Passover meals had bread and wine, which Jesus blessed. But this last meal departed from the script in another way. Not one of the Gospels mentions a main course--there is no mention of a lamb at this Passover meal, which was not a vegetarian meal, but a meal celebrated with a lamb. Why was there no lamb? There was no lamb on the table because the Lamb of God was at the table. Jesus was the main course (John 1:29; Isa 53:6-7,12). In Mark 14:22,24, Jesus meant, "I'm the One that Isaiah and John spoke about. I am the Lamb of God to which all other lambs pointed, the Lamb that takes away the sin of the world." (168)

"All love, all real, life-changing love, is substitutionary sacrifice. You have never loved (anyone) except through substituionary sacrifice." (168) It will always cost you to love a broken person, a guilty person, a hurting person. To gather Jerusalem's children under his wings (Luke 13:34), Jesus had to be completely consumed. All real, life-changing love is costly, substitutionary sacrifice.

Jesus is the Last Course

Jesus said, "Do this in remembrance of me" (Luke 22:19). This practice is called "the Lord's Supper" (1 Cor 11:20), or "the Lord's table" (1 Cor 10:21), or communion, or "cup of thanksgiving" (1 Cor 10:16), and "the breaking of bread" (Acts 2:42). This is to remind Christians of the sacrificial, substiturionary love of Jesus. Just as prior lambs had to be eaten at prior Passover meals, the Lord's Supper is a way of "taking in" the death of Jesus for ourselves and appropriating it personally. Jesus said, "Take it" (Mark 14:22). We have to take what he is doing for us. We have to receive it actively.

No one gets the benefit of food unless we take it in and digest it. To be nourished by a meal, we have to eat it. The only real food we need to take as Christians is Christ's unconditional commitment to me. The Lord's Supper is a reminder that no one can appropriate the benefits of Jesus' death unless he calls them into a personal relationship with him. To share a meal with someone--particularly in Jesus' place and time--is to have a relationship. Thus, the only way to have a personal relationship with Jesus is through his perfect, substitutionary, sacrificial suffering.

The Jews celebrated the Passover with their families. But Jesus pulled his disciples out of their families to have a Passover meal with them, to create a new family (Mark 3:35). This bond is so life-transforming that it creates a basis for unity as strong as if people had been raised together. "(Christians) are a band of natural enemies who love one another for Jesus' sake." D.A. Carson, Love in Hard Places

The Lord's Supper does something more beautiful: It points toward our future with Jesus. At this meal Jesus is saying that this Passover meal makes the ultimate feast possible (Mark 14:25). Some stunning prophesies of the future kingdom concern trees and hills clapping and dancing (Ps 96:12-13; Isa 55:12). If trees and hills will be able to clap and dance in the future kingdom, picture what you and I will be able to do. The Lord's Supper gives us a small, but very real, foretaste of that future.

What would an Israelite say after their 1st Passover in Egypt? "I was a slave, under a sentence of death, but I took shelter under the blood of the lamb and escaped from that bondage, and now God lives in our midst and escaped that bondage, and now God lives in our midst and we are following him to the Promised Land." (172)

Question: Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?

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13) The Temple (Mark 11:1-18)

Chap 1: The Dance (Trinity) (Mark 1:9-11): Do you expect others to dance around you?
Chap 2: The Gospel, The Call (Mark 1:14-20): Is your gospel good news or good advice?
Chap 3: The Healing (Mark 2:1-5): Are your sins against God or people (Ps 51:4)?
Chap 4: The Rest (Mark 2:23-3:6): Are you resting in your efforts for significance?
Chap 5: The Power (Mark 4:35-41): Do you enjoy goodness and calm in a storm?
Chap 6: The Waiting (Mark 5:21-43): Do you have peace when God delays?
Chap 7: The Stain (Mark 7:1-23): Do you feel unclean, insignificant?
Chap 8: The Approach (Mark 7:24-37): Do you know you’re a dog, yet loved?
Chap 9: The Turn (Mark 8:27-9:1): Why is forgiveness so hard?
Chap 10: The Mountain (Mark 9:2-29): What if you are filled with doubt?
Chap 11: The Trap (Mark 10:17-27): What is money to you?
Chap 12: The Ransom (Mark 10:45): Is Jesus all you want and need?

Quotes: "In Jesus we find infinite majesty yet complete humility, perfect justice yet boundless grace, absolute sovereignty yet utter submission, all sufficiency in himself yet entire trust and dependence on God." (155)

"Jesus was King, but he didn't fit into the world's categories of kingship. He brought together majesty and meekness." (154)

Intro: Jesus didn't ride into Jerusalem like a king on a power war horse, but like a "nobody" on a colt, or a small donkey, fit for a child or a hobbit (Mark 11:1-10). In this way, Jesus let it be known that he was the One prophesied in Zech 9:9.

The Excellency of Christ (Jonathan Edwards, 1738, Rev 5:5,6)

John is told to look for a lion, but there in the midst of the throne is a lamb (Rev 5:5,6). Jesus' personality is a complete and beautiful whole. (above quote)

Jesus Opened the Temple to the Unclean Pagans

Jesus "went into/entered the temple courts" (Mark 11:11,15), the first area inside the temple door, which was the biggest section of the temple, and the only part where non-Jews were allowed. All the business operations were set up there. Thousands of people flooded into Jerusalem bringing and buying thousands of animals to be sacrificed. Josephus says that 255,000 lambs were bought, sold, and sacrificed in Passover week. And all tis was the place where the Gentiles were supposed to find God through quiet reflection and prayer. Jesus turned the place upside down (Mark 11:15-17). The whole crowd was amazed (Mark 11:18). Why?

It was popularly believed that when the Messiah came he would purge the temple of foreigners. Instead, Jesus cleared the temple for the Gentiles--acting as their advocate. This was so subversive to the religious elite, since Jesus was challenging the sacrificial system altogether and saying that the Gentiles--the pagan, unwashed Gentiles--could now go directly to God in prayer, which challenged their bigoted exclusivity.

The Temple Lost at Eden ... with No Way Back

The story of the temple starts in the Garden of Eden, a place where the presence of God dwelled. It was paradise. In the presence of God there is shalom, absolute flourishing, fulfillment, joy, and bliss. But when the first humans decided to build their lives on things besides God, to let other things besides God give them their ultimate meaning and significance, paradise was lost, being guarded by "a flaming sword flashing back and forth" (Genesis 3:24), which is the sword of eternal justice, and it will not fail to exact payment. "Nobody can get back into the presence of God unless they go under the sword, unless they pay for the wrong that has been done. But who could survive the sword? No one." (158) "Building our lives on other things--on power, status, acclaim, family, race, nationality--has caused conflicts, wars, violence, poverty, disease, and death. We're trampled one another; we're trampled on this earth." (157) There's no simple way back to paradise. If you're been badly wronged, some kind of costly payment must be made to put things right.

A Provisional Solution, 1st, through the Tabernacle, then the Temple

In the middle of the temple was the holy of holies, covered by a thick veil to shield people from the shekinah presence of God, for God's immediate presence was fatal to human beings (Exo 33:20). "The tabernacle, the temple, and the whole sacrificial system--the only solution to the problem of the sword and the only access, however limited, to the presence of God--were only for the Israelites." (158) So when Jesus quoted Isa 56:7 to imply that the Gentiles could get access to the presence of God, the people were amazed.

Yet the prophets promised "For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea" (Hab 2:14)--in other words, the whole world would become a holy of holies. But how would they get past the sword?

The Ultimate Solution: Jesus Had to Go Under the Sword

Most people didn't see the answer in Isa 53:8 which speaks of the Messiah: "For he was cut off from the land of the living." This explains why John saw a slaughtered lamb at the throne, the place of ultimate power in the universe (Rev 5:6). Indeed, the death of Jesus Christ--the Lamb of God--is the greatest royal triumph in the history of the cosmos. When Jesus went under the sword, it broke his body, but it also broke itself. This is what puritan John Owen famously called "the death of Death in the death of Christ." Jesus took the sword for you and me. That's why Jesus' death caused the veil that covered the holy of holies to be ripped from top to bottom (Mark 15:38). Now all have access to the presence of God. The flaming sword claimed its victim; the veil was parted; and the way back into the garden was permanently reopened. What shocked everyone was that Jesus was not just overturning the tables, but he was overturning the sacrificial system of the temple and opening the way into the presence of God for everyone.

Fruitless Fig Tree, Temple, and Churches, Though Outwardly Very Busy

Between Jesus' 2 visits to the temple (Mark 11:11,15), Mark records Jesus cursing a fig tree for being barren though it was not the season for figs (Mark 11:12-14). This looks quite bad for Jesus. But it was no fit of temper. Between Jesus' 2 visits to the temple, Jesus seized the opportunity to provide a private, memorable object lesson, a parable against hollow religiousity, with the fig tree as a visual aid.

What's the lesson about? The fig tree wasn't doing its appointed job. The tree became a perfect metaphor for Israel and beyond that, for those claiming to be God's people but who do not bear fruit for him. The temple was religiously very busy, just like most churches are. But the busyness contained no spirituality. Nobody was actually praying. There may be outward growth without real heart change, and without real compassionate involvement with others. Jesus would clear the temple of all that fruitless activity.

What a Christian Should Be: a Lion and a Lamb

Jesus wants more than busyness; he wants the kind of character change that only comes from realizing that you have been ransomed. Are you angry, anxious, impatient, unforgiving, full of fears and worries, being busy with much religious activities?

Jonathan Edwards says of the paradoxical character of Jesus that these same radically different traits that are normally never combined in any one person will be reproduced in you because you are in the presence of Jesus Christ. You're not just becoming nicer, or more disciplined, or more moral, for Jesus, who unites such apparent extremes of character into such an integrated and balanced whole, demands an extreme response from every one of us. He will force our hand at every turn. You'll be both a lamb but also a lion at the same time; both gentle and bold, both humble and aggressive, meek yet a conqueror.

Through Jesus, and only through Him, we become a more complete person, the person we were designed to be, the person we were ransomed to be. We acquire the life and character of Jesus--the King who rides gently on a donkey, then boldly storms into the temple.

Jesus is both the rest and the storm, both the victim and the wielder of the flaming sword, and you must accept him or reject him on the basis of both. Either you'll have to kill him or you'll have to crown him. The only thing you can't do is say, "What an interesting guy."

The teachers of the law who began plotting to kill him (Mark 11:18) may have been dead wrong about him, but their reaction makes perfect sense.

Keeping Jesus in the periphery of your life won't work. He can't remain there. Give yourself to Jesus--center your entire life on him--and let his power reproduce his character in you.

Question: Are you both a lion and lamb at the same time?

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