Anticipation! If a Florida judge unseals the warrant for the search of former president Trump’s home, what will be revealed? I wish the Church was filled with anticipation.
“Then I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne (that’s God the Father) a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, ‘Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?’ And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it” (Revelation 5:1-3). The sealed scroll is in the hand of God. No judge, no politician, no corporate CEO, no theologian, no denomination…None of us is worthy to unseal the scroll that God holds in His powerful right hand. Who can know the mind of God?
“I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him was seated on the throne…. And they sang a new song, saying, ‘Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God” (5:6-7, 9). Only the Son of God, the Son of Man, Jesus Christ is worthy to reveal to us what is in God’s mighty will. Christ has earned the right by His crucifixion and resurrection, the purpose to make us God’s people. The seven horns symbolize the almighty power of the ascended Christ now at the right hand of God. The seven spirits sent out into all the earth symbolize the omniscience of the ascended Christ. Your Lord Jesus sees and knows all that is happening in this world.
What does scroll reveal? “The ultimate purpose of Christ receiving the scroll and then revealing its contents to John and the church is to strengthen the church’s faith and to encourage the church, in the midst of all the sufferings, to remain faithful to Christ and so to attain the promise of everlasting glory. That faithfulness involves carrying out the mission Christ has given to her” (Louis Brighton, “Concordia Commentary: Revelation,” 139). The ascended Christ who will soon return…now that’s real anticipation!