Here was the rule: they would have scribes follow them around, and they would write their mighty deeds in these scrolls, and they would seal the scrolls. In order to read about the mighty deeds of Caesar, you had to be deemed worthy by Caesar to open the seal.
So John's taking a jab at Caesar here, he's saying: then I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne, a scroll with writing on both sides, and sealed with seven seals.
In other words, your guy's good enough to fill up one side of a scroll; our guy is so awesome it takes both sides. Ha ha! It was sealed with seven seals!
Then he does something that's very common to the Roman Empire, he says: who is worthy to break the seals, and open the scroll? Who is worthy to get close to this king, in other words. Who is close enough to know him? Watch what the answer is:
But no one in heaven, or on earth, or under the earth could open the scroll, or even look inside of it.
So in John's initial revelation of heaven, who makes it? Nobody! In his initial revelation of heaven, he doesn't think anybody's going to make it, and watch his response:
So I wept, and I wept, because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll and look inside of it.
So hang on, so John's initial response, to knowing that no one was going to make it, was that he wept? Let me speak frankly to you. As Christians and followers of Jesus, if we ever think about someone not making it, and we lose our ability to weep over it, we've missed the point. If we ever come across like: oh yeah, they're not going to make it, and good on them, God can get them - that is not the point.
When John thought no one was going to make it, he wept, and he wept. Here's my question: have you lost your weep? Have you lost your passion for the lost? Have you taken sort of aah-whatever, and then underneath all that there's this elitism that makes this nauseating? Let's keep reading.
Then one of the elders said to me: do not weep! See, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has triumphed!
Any presentation of the gospel that does not end with God getting what He wants is not the gospel. Jesus gets what He wants. He wins. The root of David has triumphed! He is able to open the scroll, and its seven seals. Questions that we need to ask ourselves:
1) If the kingdom of heaven invaded your life today, what part of you would survive, and what part would be burned up?
2) If you walked into heaven today, would you recognise it as heaven, or would you think it was hell?
3) Are Jesus' descriptions of the kingdom of heaven congruent with your life? Where would your life struggle to live in that environment today?
This is all what it means to be a disciple. Discipleship has nothing to do with: I believe in Jesus. Believing in Jesus only qualifies you to be a demon with flesh on. No, no. It's: are you LIVING it? Are you establishing that? That's a disciple - a disciple is someone actively participating with God to establish His kingdom on the earth.
Maybe the better question is this:
4) What pruning needs to take place in your life now, so that the kingdom can be established in you today?
In other words, what's holding you back? Where is heaven not already established in your heart? Now with that as the backdrop, this is the one that bothered me the most. I looked at everything Jesus said about heaven, and I realised that I had darkness in my heart on this topic. I realised there was a black spot in there as big as Australia, that I could not get away from it; and once I was brave enough to look at it with the Holy Spirit, I realised how sick I was making myself. This was nauseating to me.
Now when we look at Jesus' descriptions of heaven, all sense of worthiness will be burned up. In other words, if there's anything in you, that thinks you deserve heaven more than the other person, then that's going to get burned off of you. That's going to get burned off of you! This is how he describes heaven.