If you are-now or ever-were a little kid, do you ever get so excited about telling a story that your words tumble from your mouth like an endless string of run-on sentences? And every one of them begins with “and”?!
“And I was walking home from school, and I saw this big fire truck, and its sirens were loud, and it was going really fast, and there were firemen standing on the back, and … .” Your still-small voice suddenly caffeinates as you feverishly describe this mysterious, and exciting, and breathtaking moment.
That full-throated voice of enthusiasm this morning belongs to the New Testament prophet John. This short video clip sets up the context of our boisterous Scripture lesson from the last chapter of the Bible, the book of Revelation.
Hear, now, the Word of the Lord through the words of the prophet John – possibly the apostle whom Jesus called “beloved” – as he continues to reveal the work that God is doing in the world that surrounds seven congregations of the early Church. And so-also the world that frames the Church today! John begins with expressions of grief over the inability of God’s people to figure out just how in blue blazes will the Lord save his fearful and fallen Creation.
But the teary-eyed scene ends with rousing celebration of God’s Good News! So, indeed: from The Message translation of the Bible, “Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of the prophecy, and blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written in it; for the time is near” (Revelation 1:3).
I saw a scroll in the right hand of the One Seated on the Throne. It was written on both sides, fastened with seven seals. I also saw a powerful Angel, calling out in a voice like thunder, “Is there anyone who can open the scroll who can break its seals?”
There was no one – no one in Heaven, no one on earth, no one from the underworld —able to break open the scroll and read it.
I wept and wept and wept that no one was found able to open the scroll, able to read it. One of the Elders said, “Don’t weep. Look—the Lion from Tribe Judah, the Root of David’s Tree, has conquered. He can open the scroll, can rip through the seven seals.”
So I looked, and there, surrounded by Throne, Animals, and Elders, was a Lamb, slaughtered but standing tall. Seven horns he had, and seven eyes, the Seven Spirits of God sent into all the earth. He came to the One Seated on the Throne and took the scroll from his right hand. The moment he took the scroll, the Four Animals and Twenty-four Elders fell down and worshiped the Lamb. Each had a harp and each had a bowl, a gold bowl filled with incense, the prayers of God’s holy people. And they sang a new song:
Worthy! Take the scroll, open its seals.
Slain! Paying in blood, you bought men and women,
Bought them back from all over the earth,
Bought them back for God.
Then you made them a Kingdom, Priests for our God,
Priest-kings to rule over the earth.
I looked again. I heard a company of Angels around the Throne, the Animals, and the Elders—ten thousand times ten thousand their number, thousand after thousand after thousand in full song:
The slain Lamb is worthy!
Take the power, the wealth, the wisdom, the strength!
Take the honor, the glory, the blessing!
Then I heard every creature in Heaven and earth, in underworld and sea, join in, all voices in all places, singing:
To the One on the Throne! To the Lamb!
The blessing, the honor, the glory, the strength,
For age after age after age.
How appropriate that the first notes of Revelation 5 let loose with sobs – which soon give way to songs of loudest praise! For doesn’t that scene precisely embody the wide-ranging swath of emotions along which you and I exist – how God’s adopted sons and daughters most generally have always lived, moved, and had our being. Sobbing-turned-singing follows the many tight curvatures through which the Lord apparently wants to move his beloved people.
Then the speech of a patriarch signals that there’s no lasting reason for such intense grief: There most-definitely exists One who can unseal the scroll that embraces God’s plan to wipe away every tear. That One is “a Lamb – looking as if it had been slain” (5:6). He is the One only able to unlock the cryptic parchment of plans for everything that God has created by the movement of the Spirit over the climate of chaos.
The One who came and pitched his tent among us; the One who befriended the outcast; the One who died on a cross, rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven – Jesus Christ is the One who’s able to unfurl Heaven’s plan of confession, repentance, and resurrection. The Child of Bethlehem turned carpenter of Nazareth is the One who binds up our wounds, repairs our brokenness, and sets us free to live in the freedom of the City of God!
We are called! In Christ and by the Holy Spirit, lives are being changed!
That’s why I earlier in the service invited you to spend some time “treasuring and pondering” the announcements in this morning’s bulletin. Their humble words are testimony to grace-filled unsealing of the scroll here in this place – sure and certain witness to the life-saving plans of God unfolding right before our very eyes. Through generosity that’s energetic, intelligent, and enthusiastic, offerings of time, talent, and treasure are changing lives for the better.
And all that’s left for us to do is sing with the robust gusto of a German Oktoberfest and celebrate with solemn abandon – as if we’re watching a different kind of light beaming from that glittering ball that slowly drops over Times Square. Rejoice and be glad, yours is the Kingdom of God: Jesus Christ is the One who signals the dawning of an entirely different kind of new year.
Our joyful noise might start off like no more than a murmur. But soon others similarly incarcerated by sin and brokenness will join our ranks, in praising the One Lamb who was slain to redeem every square inch of Creation. Such singing is breathtaking testimony to the power of the Spirit to elicit praise from every corner of God’s world – particularly from within all sorts of prison walls that create challenging circumstances in which to sing of God’s amazing grace, as with the men of the Calvin Prison Initiative Choir.
As John proclaims at the start of his letter, “Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of the prophecy, and blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written in it; for the time is near.”
So it is to be. Amen!
Pastor Grant M. VanderVelden shared this message during morning worship on Sunday, January 18, 2026, at First Presbyterian Church in Waukon, Iowa, USA. It is part of his current sermon series on the New Testament book of Revelation. Scholarship, commentary, and reflection by Doug Bratt, Scott Hoezee, Stan Mast, and Eugene Peterson inform the message.