Worthy Is The Lamb

Revelation 5:1-14

‘Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and praise!’

Shane Claiborne, founder of Red Letter Christians, visited Gas Street in 2019 and described his disorientation when he joined Mother Teresa and the other sisters in their prayer meeting, crazy o’clock, on the first day of his visit to Kolkata. In the middle of such suffering and need, surely there would be loads of ‘intercession’-type praying: give them, give us, give me… Instead they explained to him that the first hour was always just silently ‘adoring Jesus’. He had no idea what to do or even what ‘adoration’ meant.

Recently, in a Gas St. Gathering talk, we went through a doorway and explored these chapters (Rev 4-5) and were awed by the throne-room of heaven: dazzling jewels, a rainbow and other spectacular phenomena, an elders’ council, weird beasties, a lake. Breath-taking silence as the Father lifts a scroll, “Who is Worthy?” Then, step forward Judah’s Lion: but wait, now a Lamb, newly slaughtered.

Worship is, first, adoration. The massed choirs of heaven never tire of adoration. “Who? It’s the Lamb who is worthy.” Like Tom, the Twin, worship bursts out when we see the Lord Jesus, still carrying the gashes and mutilation of his cross but exalted to the highest place, glorified at God’s right hand. He questioned Tom, “How about those who haven’t been able to ‘see’? 80 generations in the future, up in the midlands? They haven’t ‘seen’ but they’ll believe!” Talking about us! And, yes, we do believe. And we adore, we worship.

So we’ve practised ‘Adoration’ this past week: find a gospel story, soak it in and then allow your imagination to take you there and bring you to the place of ‘adoring Jesus’. No need to force anything; he is completely mesmerizing and compelling and his Spirit loves to join with you in this to the glory of Father God.

Adoration: Lord Jesus, Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, I offer you my wholehearted adoration. You freely gave yourself for me, even to death on a cross. Now God has highly exalted you, with a name above every name, for every knee to bow, every tongue declare, ‘Worthy, worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and praise!’