Allen Jackson - A Triumphal Procession - Part 1

The topic we’re working through is «Lions and Lambs». And in this session we’re gonna talk about a triumphal procession. The reason for, you know, the why for this little study really began is I wanted to spend some time walking around some of the principles of spiritual conflict. There’s a tremendous amount of conflict in our world. About any place you put your finger on the globe, there is some expression of conflict, hatred, violence, turmoil. It’s really unimaginable. I had a few minutes with Angus Bucket on the phone today. And South Africa is under an enormous amount of stress. And it’s not convenient for our media to report it. But it’s not unique to there. Throughout the earth, there’s great stress and it’s not primarily political or ideological or religious.

The fundamentals of that are spiritual. And the only people equipped to deal with spiritual conflict are the people of God, the church. I don’t mean a congregation or a denomination, but the people who truly have chosen Jesus of Nazareth have the tools to do something about this. And we are far too often either unaware or ambivalent indifferent or we’re simply unprepared and that is tragic. So I wanted to spend some time with this and I started to put it together and I haven’t gotten past this imagery yet of the «Lions and the Lambs».

So if I don’t get past it, we’ll figure out how to morph the series. But there’s something happening in our world. Deception is flourishing, lies flourish, dishonesty is so rampant, we reject the truth. We reject the good and we embrace the perverse. That is spiritual. When you see something happening that makes no sense logically and there are people with education and sophistication and influence and authority saying things that are so bizarre, understand there’s another motivation, there’s another force at work there. And then we have to understand the tools that we have at our disposal to respond to that. I’ll give you an example, Washington DC. It’s been a violent, violent place with a consistent pattern of violent crime and murders. And the current administration took some steps to try to reduce the violent crime and to minimize the murders.

And there have been a whole host of very powerful, very affluent, very educated, very sophisticated people just saying it’s horrible. And they’re gone now what, nine or ten days without a murder in the nation’s capital. And there’s people just so torqued up. It’s awful. You know, after January 6, they put a fence around the Capitol and deployed the National Guard to protect the people that worked in the Capitol. Imagine if one of them had been being murdered every week. And they could care less that the citizens of the city were suffering violent crime, murderous crime, and when it’s reduced, they complain. That’s illogical. Forget political parties. Forget candidates. That kind of behavior makes, we should all want our cities to be safe.

I’ll give you example after example of things we’re watching that can’t be understood just in terms of cultural conflict or ideology. Biological sex. I mean, we have a whole industries now. I read an interview recently from the head of the AMA, the American Medical Association, talking about gender altering procedures in the healthcare community and how profitable they were. And under some intensity with the person doing the interview, he finally admitted, you know, the only data and information that has come from the people who are performing the procedures are administering the hormones. There’s nothing like independent research.

Well, you know, I grew up in Tennessee. So there’s some limits. And my formative years, I spent a lot of time in a barn. So I’m sure that brings a whole another set of limits. But I’m here to tell you, biological sex is not confusing. Now I have compassion on people that might be confused about it. If you’re confused about something that fundamental, there is significant trouble. But it is cruel and evil to take advantage of somebody or someone who is confused that fundamentally and alter their person.

Again, we can respond with compassion, but it’s not compassion to profit from people who are confused in such a deep way. The list could go on, but there is a root beneath all of that. It isn’t a political discussion. It’s not an ideological discussion or a candidate discussion. There’s a spiritual battle taking place. In church we have got to be engaged. We’re gonna have to grow past statements like I’m born again. I’m grateful that you are. If you’re not, come see me before you leave. We can help with that. It’s important, but it’s the beginning point. The expectation is presented in Scripture is that we would grow up in our salvation. So we’re talking about lions and lambs. In the New Testament, it is a lion’s tale, T-A-L-E, not T-A-I-L.

And 1 Peter chapter 5, the fisherman that Jesus recruited describes one of the lions with whom we are confronted. He said, «Be self-controlled and alert, Your enemy,» do you know you have an enemy if you align yourself with the purposes of God? Do you have any idea how many people I meet that think they’re too sophisticated to believe in the devil? That’s a great ploy.

Can you imagine being so clever that you could cause the people you intend to destroy to believe that you don’t exist? «Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. And the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, after you’ve suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To him be power forever and ever, amen».

We’ve looked at this already. I’m not gonna do it in a great deal of detail, but Peter identifies an adversary and he describes him as something like a roaring lion. Now if you’re a linguist, I understand that Peter said he’s like a roaring lion. He didn’t call him a roaring lion. But the metaphor, the image, the power, the authority, the destructiveness that he chose was like a roaring lion. He didn’t say he was like a new puppy. He didn’t say like he was like a docile house pet. He said he prowls around like a roaring lion, very intimidating. I’ve been on the plains of Africa and seen prides of lions. I was not tempted to climb out of the jeep and say, «Here kitty, kitty».

I was quite comfortable to have a zoom lens to observe what was happening amongst the lions. And Peter gives us the appropriate response to satanic roaring. Did you catch it? When you recognize that Satan is roaring, when you recognize the proximity is close enough that you can hear him and recognizes his presence, what are we supposed to do? Peter told us. Resist him. Resist him. He didn’t say ignore him. He didn’t say look the other way. He didn’t say run. He said, you have an assignment to resist him. He said he will take self-control. You’ll have to be alert. It will be necessary to stand firm in the faith. That the foundation that you’re gonna stand on is faith in a living God.

Hebrews says, «Without faith it’s impossible to please God». When you’re confronted with the roar of the lion, you have to stand firm in faith. It’s too late to figure out if you’re standing in a firm place when you hear the roar. You better establish a firm foundation before you hear the roar of the threat. It’s too late to figure out how a sling works when you hear Goliath bellow his challenge. You better be a top shelf slinger of stones before you meet Goliath. And then Peter gives us a bit of instruction, self-control, alert, resist him, stand firm in the faith. And then he says something. It’s not a message. I just white it out if I had biblical permission. I don’t. He said, you’re gonna have to endure some suffering.

Oh, it’s a part of the journey. Nobody makes it through the journey in time without some of that. But then he gives us a perspective, he said, «Be aware of the suffering of others». It’s not just yours. It’s not unique to you. When it visits you, it’s unique because it occupies your awareness, but it isn’t unique to you. Others suffer as well. And then we’re given this amazing promise. He said, after you’ve suffered a little while, God will restore you. But then he describes the restoration, what that will be like. He said, «You’ll be strong, firm, and steadfast».

There’s a connection back there to the beginning when you recognize the roar of the lion, your adversary, he said, you’re gonna stand firm in the faith. And after God has restored you, you’ll be stronger, you’ll have a more firm foundation, and you’ll be steadfast immovable. So the lion roars, the Lord restores you, and you’re in a better place than you were when you heard the roar. So some of you can hear the roar tonight. You could describe it.

Now I want to put in parallel against that, in contrast to that, another lion we meet in the New Testament. Revelation chapter 5, familiar passage. This is John. The disciple closest to Jesus. He has this amazing revelation of the throne room of God, this vision. And he said, «I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll». There’s a book with the story of the end of the age and nobody has the authority to open it and John is emotional about it. «And one of the elders said, Don’t weep! The Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. And he’s able to open the scroll and it’s seven seals. And I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and».

I wanted, you know, the Peter passage, I’ve heard so many Christians say, Peter didn’t say he was a roaring. He said he was like a roaring lion. I said, okay, I got it. When John describes Jesus is the Lion of the tribe of Judah, eternally identified with the Jewish people, when John turns to see if the elder says to him, the Lion of the tribe of Judah can do this, he’s been given the authority. And John turns to see the lion, but he sees a lamb that looks like he’s been slain. He doesn’t see a lion in all of his majesty.

Most of us have seen some illustrations of C.S. Lewis, «Narnia» tales and Aslan and this impressive lion. But when John turns to see the Lion of the tribe of Judah, he sees a lamb that looks like he’s been slain. Because the authority that Jesus gained came through that cross. We’re gonna come back to that in just a moment. Can you hold that idea for a minute? I highlighted for you the appropriate response to the roars, the satanic roars. What’s the appropriate response when you see the Lion of the tribe of Judah?

We need to go a little further in chapter 5. Look at verse 12, same scenario, same picture. I just edited it a bit for brevity’s sake. It says, «In a loud voice they sang: Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise! '» That’s an intriguing list to me. There’s some things in that list I wouldn’t even think would be relevant to Jesus. Do you know why I think sometimes we misunderstand. We think worship is for the purpose of the one we’re worshiping. I don’t worship the Lord because he needs his ego to be bolstered.

I worship the Lord because I need to reframe my own perception of myself and God and my world. You need to think about that 'cause some of us are very reluctant worshippers. I’m not raising my hands. Not gonna get you catch me being emotional. You know, and because we have got in our minds and it’s purposed I think incorrectly, we think that we worship the Lord because in his fragile state, he needs to be bolstered by the adoration of his creation. Oh, oh. We worship the Lord because in our frailty we need to be reminded there’s an Almighty God who’s watching over all. So with that thought come back and look at what they’re saying in worship in heaven.

«Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise»! How do we worship the Lord? Well, by giving expressions to him from our authority from whatever little bit of power he’s given us. We point it towards him. With our wealth. We worship the Lord with our stuff. We worship him with our wisdom. We submit our intellect to the authority of Scripture. With our strength we serve him. With honor and glory, the respect and dignity that we were talking about, you know, I don’t know why you go to, why do you stand when you pray? 'Cause I intend to show respect and honor to the Lord. We gotta lose some of this entitlement stuff, folks. It makes us vulnerable to the roar of a lion you don’t wanna be close to.

Nobody can tell me where to park or how to sit or. Stop. We are gathering to worship the King of kings and the Lord of lords. I’m pretty sure, I don’t know who’s on your high on your respect list if it’s a Food Network star or a sports figure or if it would be the White House or the opposition to the White House. I don’t know who that would be, but if you got an invitation for a personal visit, I bet you wouldn’t wear a dirty t-shirt and a ragged pair of shorts. You’d probably even, like, brush your teeth. And I suspect you would be early for the appointment. I don’t think you’d come dragging in, you know, ten, 15 minutes late going, «Nice to see you».

What has caused us to become so casual with the Lord? You know, I’m not saying it was better 'cause our whole culture is more casual and there’s some things about that that are very good. But when I was a young person, people went to church in a much more formal state. Now they used to fly on airplanes in a much more formal state, so it isn’t just church. But the language that emerged in churches you were judged if you couldn’t dress nicely. So we were gonna be more casual and we celebrated that as an expression of kind of an egalitarian, you know, we’re not any longer judging one another and I’m all good with that. I’ll tell you what I’m not good with.

If you give more attention to your wardrobe when you’re going out for the evening than you do when you come worship. The clothes I wear have, I mean, my shirt’s untucked. I’ve gotten notes about that. It’s okay. So I’m not trying to push us back to some place. I am trying to recapture an idea or express an idea that God is worthy of respect. And we have this scene with the Lion of the tribe of Judah. And it doesn’t feel overly casual to me. The elders fall down. We talked about postures for prayer. If you think bowing your head is an expression of submission or kneeling, how about laying on the floor before someone? I need to finish the passage so we can finish the outline.

«And then I heard every creature in heaven on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that’s in them, everybody everywhere singing, 'To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, forever and ever! '» So here’s the question, what’s the appropriate response when you recognize that the Lion of Judah? Praise and worship. But that’s not just a song service. That’s a yielding of your whole person. If you don’t like to sing our little choruses, I’m okay with that. You start practicing how you yield your whole person to the Lord. Don’t let anybody that knows you imagine anything other than you are fully submitted to the Lordship of Jesus with your strength, with your intellect, with your resources, with your calendar, with your priorities.

Folks, that doesn’t happen overnight. That doesn’t emerge from us immediately after reciting the sinner’s prayer. That is something that we begin to practice to yield if the response to the threat of the Satan’s roar is to resist him. If you wanna spend time in the presence of the Lion of Judah, I would submit to you that we wanna become better at giving expression to worship. And I wanna push that a little further with you. In 2 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 14. Says, «Thanks be to God, who always leads us in a triumphal procession in Christ. And through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him».

Seems like a pretty passive verse, but there’s something in there that I think is really helpful to us. It says that God always leads us in a triumphal procession in Christ. The words are a little bit perhaps lost on us. New Testament was written in Greek predominantly in the first century. And in Rome when a general had a victory, particularly remarkable victory, he was rewarded with a triumph. It was a parade, a processional through the streets of Rome with the plunder of whoever was conquered.

So a triumph is not the winning of a victory. The triumph was a celebration of a victory that has been won. Do you recognize the difference? We talk about a triumph. We’re not saying, oh, you’ve had a great victory 'cause that’s the way we use the word today. You were triumphant. You won. It’s not the way the word was used and that it was defined to the audience when this was written. A triumph was the celebration of a victory that had been won. If a professional sports team wins a championship, it’s not uncommon for them to have a parade in their home city. That would be a triumphal parade. The victory was one weeks before typically or days before on some competition field of competition.

So when it says here that God leads us in a triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him, we are the evidence of a victory that has been won. So that when people see our lives, they go, you know, there’s no explanation for that other than God. Maybe I should check that God thing out. Are you with me?

Now I wanna go back to the passage in Revelation 5. Look at Revelation 5 and verse 5 «Again, one of the elders said to me, Don’t weep. The Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David has triumphed». He’s not saying he had a victory. God responded to what Jesus did in such a way that we have become the demonstration of the victory that Jesus had. And the message to John in Revelation 5 is, you don’t have to weep.

There’s one with the authority to open the scroll because he has a triumph. You’re a part of the display. The book of Revelation opens and God said, you know, I have a message for the people in the earth. How will we get it to them? And the answer comes, I have a servant. You and I are an expression of the victory that Jesus won. This is very much a part of the New Testament. There’s a spirit, you see, if you don’t believe there was really a conflict, if you don’t believe the roar of the lion that would destroy you is real, then you will undersell the victory of the Lion of the tribe of Judah.