Easter's Song is Total Victory!

3rd Sunday of Easter, 4/18/10
Revelation 5:11-14


Easter’s Song Is Total Victory!
I. A song of praise to the Lamb who was slain for all
II. A song of worship of the Lamb who rules over all


What song is currently your favorite or what songs from your entire life do you consider to be your favorite? Now that you have that song or list of songs in mind, consider the various emotions that are expressed in that song. If it’s a love song, the emotion of love surely is emphasized, but that song also is likely to treat the emotions of joy over that love as well as sadness as the song’s composer bemoans the fact that he or she can’t spend more time with their beloved.

Other favorite songs express patriotism and along with it gratitude for those who have led our country and those who have fought for our country, especially for those who have died for our country.

Some favorite songs even express anger and frustration and along with it a spirit of vengeance and hatred.

When I asked for your favorite song, some of you might have chosen one of the hymns we sing. We all have our favorite hymns and, just like secular songs, they often treat a wide range of emotions and situations. Joy fills the lines of Christmas hymns and the hearts of Christmas singers. In Lent, our hymns express sorrow for the way our Savior suffered for our sins but at the same time we’re glad that he did and we’re thankful to him for it.

And then there are our Easter hymns. If you think about the hymns we sing at Easter, all of them express joy for the victory that Christ won for us. They speak of his defeat of sin and death and hell. They express the truth that his victory is eternal. They remind us that by faith in Jesus his victory is our victory.

And that’s exactly what the Apostle John heard the angels in heaven singing in one of the revelations that the Lord Jesus gave him. In today’s sermon text John records what he heard in two songs from heaven, both dealing with the victory Jesus won when he rose from the dead. That victory isn’t momentary or fleeting. Jesus isn’t this year’s victor but he leaves us with doubt about next year. His victory is total victory. That’s what Easter’s song is all about. Easter’s song is total victory. Let’s pay close attention to these two songs from John’s Revelation and through them may the Holy Spirit fill us with joy and confidence.

Part I.

As a child I recall singing songs about American heroes such as Davey Crocket and Daniel Boone. Such songs celebrate courage and rejoice over the victories those heroes won. I don’t ever recall singing a song that celebrates a hero’s death. We don’t celebrate deaths; we mourn them. We do our best to deal with such deaths and get past them.

But listen to the opening words of the first Easter song of total victory. “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!” John heard thousands upon thousands of angels praising the Lamb who was slain. You recognize that as none other than Jesus. Wasn’t the death of Jesus a great tragedy? Indeed it was! It revealed God’s wrath against sin and the sinner. It displayed just how awful our sins are. Indeed, it’s the greatest of tragedies that the holy One should die while the guilty ones go free. So why celebrate that tragic death when we don’t celebrate others?

Because it won great blessings for us. Since the Son of God suffered the punishment of hell for us, we don’t have to. Because the Son of God removed the curse of sin, we have the gift of eternal life. Because the Son of God redeemed us with his holy, precious blood, we now are members of God’s eternal family. Those are tremendous reasons to celebrate the fact that the Lamb was slain.

But the greatest of reasons to celebrate that awful event is that the Lamb is no longer dead; he lives! If the Lamb were still dead, there would be no reason to celebrate at all. But because the Lamb who was slain now lives, we can rejoice and be glad. Because the Lamb now lives, we know that his victory over sin and death and hell is an eternal, total victory.

That means we are not cast away from God’s presence forever. Instead, the Lamb’s death brings us into fellowship with the holy God. By his death Jesus redeemed us—he bought us back—so that we could be his own. The song the angels sang mentions seven attributes that belong to the exalted Savior. One good way of understanding those seven attributes is that they represent the fellowship that has been restored between God and his creatures because of the death and resurrection of Jesus. God created you to live with him forever and that’s exactly what will happen to you because the Lamb was slain. The Lamb’s total victory is your total victory.

Easter’s song is total victory—it’s a song of praise to the Lamb who was slain for all.

Not a day goes by in which we don’t hear about one victory or another. They happen countless times every day in the world of sports. We hear and read about political victories and personal victories. And for the most part, we don’t much care. That’s because we don’t see how those victories impact us. Some impact us very little; most not at all.

Sadly, we’re tempted to view the Lamb’s total victory in the same way. How often each day are you impressed that the Son of God was slain for you? How much time do you spend each day wondering how you’ll properly thank him for being slain for you? We’re not real good with either of those. And one of the reasons for it and that we’re not that impressed with how sinful we are. In fact, we often compare our lives with the lives of others and conclude we’re better than they are. With an attitude like that, it’s no wonder we’re less than impressed with the slaying of the Lamb of God for us. The solution to our appalling lack of gratitude comes when we take to heart Easter’s song. It’s a song of the Lamb’s total victory—not for himself, but for us who deserve hell for our sins. Because the Lamb was slain and now lives we have total victory as well. Not even death can claim us as its victims because through Christ we live! So sing, fellow Christians! Sing Easter’s song of total victory! It’s a song of praise to the Lamb who was slain for all.

Part II.

When we celebrate great past victories, we look back and appreciate that victory for what it was so long ago, but we often fail to appreciate what that victory means for us today. For instance, we’re proud of the fact that the United States was on the winning side of the two great world wars, but what do those victories mean for you today? How do those victories practically impact your lives into the future? I don’t know about you, but I’m hard pressed to come up with anything specific.

Every year we celebrate Christ’s total Easter victory, but when we do so, do we fail to recognize its eternal impact on our lives? If so, let these words of the second Easter song in our text remind you. “Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing: ‘To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!’” This is a song of worship to the Lamb who is enthroned with his heavenly Father. It’s a picture of Christ’s rule over all things. But it’s not just a biblical picture; it’s a divine reality. Jesus truly rules over all things. Scripture declares that he does so for the good of his church—his believers. It repeatedly reminds us that nothing in all of history is beyond his control. And it’s all because he raised himself from the dead.

How appropriate, then, for this heavenly chorus to acknowledge that glorious truth! In a world in which earthly powers contend with each other every day, in an earthly history which records the daily, unending battle between evil and good, in the spiritual world in which Satan and his angels are attacking God’s people every moment, here’s some tremendously good news. Jesus rules over all. Indeed that truth is something to sing about.

But we struggle to see it. We live in that world that battles God’s truth. We see the onslaught of evil every day of our lives. And it’s not just occurring in someone else’s neighborhood. Evil assaults our lives as well. It comes in the forms of disasters and disease and death, to name just three. We bemoan the fact that nothing seems to go right in our lives. We get depressed when it appears we’re losing so many of our battles. We even complain to our gracious God that he’s not treating us fairly as his people.

And when that’s our frame of mind, then we have little or no reason to join this heavenly chorus in worship of the Lamb who rules over all. When that’s our frame of mind, then our worship words are filled with self-righteousness instead of proper praise to the One who gives us his righteousness. When that’s our frame of mind, then we view Christ’s Easter victory as fleeting and temporary instead of total and complete. Ultimately, when that’s our frame of mind, then we’re left to battle Satan and death and hell ourselves, and there are no odds at all of us winning against any of them.

So take to heart Easter’s song of total victory. Join the four living creatures that John saw and respond with a faith-filled “Amen!” Christ’s empty tomb isn’t a crusty old story that might have had some meaning for others so long ago; it’s God’s saving, living, active truth in your life. The Lamb rules over all things for your good. He calls for you to trust him to do that every day of your life. He calls for you to walk in the confidence of that truth every day of your life. He calls for you to join this heavenly chorus in worshipping him as the Lamb who rules over all. Sing that song! It’s Easter’s song of total victory. Amen.