Barry Metz 08/19/18

How Are You Responding to Jesus?Matthew 12:38-50

Consider the question, “How are you responding to Jesus?” If Jesus is who the Bible says he is--the Son of God, the second person of the trinity, the one before whom every knee in heaven and on earth will one day bow--is there a more important question?

How are you responding to Jesus? You’ve heard the phrase, “There’s an elephant in the room.” Well, one greater than an elephant has entered our world. And he really can’t be ignored. We can try to dance around him but we’re liable to get squished. Is Jesus on your radar screen?

How are You responding to Him? We’re going to let that question give focus to our passage in Matthew today.

As you would guess, the New Testament is full of responses to Jesus. I had fun thinking about them. Consider these four…

Here’s the quick back story to that response to Jesus. When Mary came to visit her near relative Elizabeth in Luke 1, little John the Baptist was about nine inches long and he weighed about one and a half pounds. Being six months along in Elizabeth’s womb he would have looked like a perfect miniature newborn. His skin would have been clear. He would have had fingerprints and toe prints and sometimes he would have opened his eyes for brief periods of time.1 Little pre-natal John detected that he was in the presence of His Lord or at least the mother of his Lord and he leapt, he vaulted in Elizabeth’s womb. Go, John the Baptist! How is that for a response to Jesus?

And then when baby Jesus was brought to the temple, 40 days after his birth, the righteous man Simeon and the prophetess Anna were there. Anna began to give thanks to God and speak of (Jesus) to all who were waiting for the redemption of Israel.2 And Simeon…1 Hughes, Luke, page 412 Luke 2:38

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Pretty amazing responses to Jesus, don’t you think?And then fast forwarding to the ministry of Jesus, we see this memorable response of Peter to Jesus when two of his boats were miraculously filled with fish after a long night of trying to catch fish and catching nothing.

And one more before we head to Matthew this morning…. A scene from the crucifixion:

The presence of Jesus, from right before the cradle to right before the grave, elicited responses from everyone encountered him. Could we say the presence of Jesus, the god-man demands a

response? How are you responding to Jesus?

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We’ll look at some other responses to Jesus throughout the message. These extra gratuitous responses to Jesus are aimed at leading us to the tipping point--all of us must respond to Jesus.

And… we’ll see three specific responses to Jesus in our passage this morning in Matthew 12. If you have your Bibles let’s get the passage before us…I’ll be reading Matthew 12:38-50…Matthew 12:38-50.

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38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” 39 But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 41 The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. 42 The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here. 43 “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none. 44 Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order. 45 Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So also will it be with this evil generation.” 46 While he was still speaking to the people, behold, his mother and his brothers stood outside, asking to speak to him. 48 But he replied to the man who told him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” 49 And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 50 For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”

In this passage I think we see three responses to Jesus. We see a cynical unbelieving response to Jesus--Show us a sign Jesus! Do some tricks! (vs. 38-42) We see the danger of a neutral 3 response to Jesus--what happens to a house when it is swept and put in order….but empty. And we see what I would call the most appropriate response of all to Jesus, verses 46-50. What’s the most appropriate response of all to Jesus? We’ll talk about that when we get there.

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3 Morris uses this phrase

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Look at verse 3838 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.”

This is Matthew’s first use of the word ‘sign’. What do the religious leaders have in mind in requesting a ‘sign’? And what kind of a response to Jesus is this?

Well, we know that Jesus healed a paralytic in front of some scribes in Matthew 9:1-8. And we know that Jesus healed a ruler of the synagogue’s daughter in Matthew 9:18-26; surely the Pharisees and scribes heard about that! And we know that Pharisees were present when Jesus cast a demon out of a man in Matthew 9:32-34. And we know that Pharisees were present when Jesus healed a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath in a synagogue in Matthew 12:9-14. And as recently as last week’s text, here in Matthew 12:22-32, we know that Jesus healed a demon-oppressed man who was blind and mute in plain view of some Pharisees. So Jesus has done plenty of miracles right under the noses of the religious leaders.

But the religious leaders wanted more than another miracle. What they wanted was an ‘unambiguous demonstration from heaven that God himself was at work in the life of Jesus.’4 What they wanted “was a sign performed on command to remove what seemed to them to be the ambiguity of Jesus’ miracles.5” What they wanted was certifiable evidence that ‘Jesus was definitely the Messiah.’6 They were looking for a ‘sign from heaven.’7 They were looking for a “spectacular, sensational demonstration of supernatural power.”8

“Give us something visible from heaven that will prove your claims.”9

“Give us a ‘super miracle’ that will validate the divine origin of your other miracles.”10

Some people respond to Jesus that way. We could call it the cynical unbelieving ‘signs on demand’ response. We could call it the cynical unbelieving response. “Yeah you’ve done a few miracles, God. But I’ve got to see more.”

Our friends visited from Austin this past week. The wife shared how one of her siblings was an alcoholic. He’d been an alcoholic for 40 years. And she traced his alcoholism back to his mom and dad’s divorce. He just never got over it. He prayed that God would bring them back together and it wasn’t to be. Now I’m kind of wondering out loud if he basically said to God, 4 Handbook5 Carson, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary6 MacArthur7 Matthew 16:18 MacArthur9 BRC10 Handbook

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“God give me a sign…heal my parent’s divorce.” And when God didn’t bring the healing he cynically demanded, he walked away. Some people respond to Jesus that way. They respond to Jesus by demanding a sign, a healing, a miracle. But Jesus resists ‘signs on demand.’ He resists being put in the center ring of the circus with the lions and told to perform. He loves to meet needs but he resists demands.

Well, how did Jesus respond to the religious leaders’ unbelieving cynicism? Verse 39 tells us. His answer basically had two parts-- “You’re an evil and adulterous generation for seeking a sign”, AND the second part… “The only sign you’ll get is the sign of the prophet Jonah.”

Jesus marked his questioners as evil and adulterous because they sought for a sign. They were evil because they had been given ample evidence that Jesus was sent by God. And they were adulterous because they were unfaithful to God.11 They should have known who Jesus was. They should have accepted him without demanding another sign. They dripped with unbelieving cynicism in the very presence of God’s son.

The second part of Jesus’ answer was that the only sign they would get was the sign of the prophet Jonah. What’s the sign of the prophet Jonah? It seems that verse 40 interprets verse 39….40 For…. just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

The sign of the prophet Jonah would seem to be what happened to Jonah--that he was in the belly of the great fish for three days and three nights and that he came out miraculously. And so the sign of Jonah pointed forward, it foreshadowed, what would happen to Jesus himself.

Just as God delivered Jonah from death in the belly of the fish after three days and three nights, so God would deliver Jesus from the “belly/heart” of the earth (Matt. 12:40) after three days and three nights.12

{Interestingly, if you read Luke’s version of the story, Luke 11:29-32--and Luke says nothing about the three days and three nights-- the sign of Jonah could be more generally seen as

Jonah himself. We could say it this way ---the sign which is Jonah. One can also use Luke to conclude the sign is Jonah’s preaching of repentance.}13 But we’re sticking with Matthew and it

11 MacArthur12 Roop, E. F. (2002). Ruth, Jonah, Esther (p. 145). Scottdale, PA: Herald Press.13 What Jesus meant by the ‘sign of Jonah’ is difficult to determine, and the problem is compounded by the different emphases found in Matthew 12:38–42 and Luke 11:29–32. While Matthew draws attention to the ‘three days and three nights’ which Jonah spent in the belly of the fish (12:40), and thereby creates a link with the death and resurrection of Jesus, Luke omits this idea completely. By focusing on the material common to both Matthew and Luke the concepts of preaching, repentance and judgment appear most prominently. Scholarly discussion of the ‘sign of Jonah’ has focused on these various possibilities. Alexander, T. D. (2000). Jonah (Person). In T. D. Alexander & B. S.

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is pretty clear that the sign of Jonah is his being in the heart of the big fish three days and three nights.

What are we to do with the phrase three days and three nights given that we commonly teach that Jesus went in to the tomb on Friday night and arose early Sunday morning? You’ve probably heard it explained this way. Jesus was crucified on Friday, he went in the tomb on Friday night, he was in the tomb on Saturday the Sabbath, and he rose early on Sunday, the first day of the week. So Jesus was in the ‘heart of the earth’ for portions of three days. And the Jewish perspective from the Talmud, contributes to that kind of understanding--that ‘any part of a day is as the whole.’14 Think about how we use the word ‘day’ in our normal communication. Don’t we sometimes use the word ‘day’ rather loosely? We say “I spent the day at the lake” and what we mean is I was there from 10:00 am to 4:00pm?15

For those who are unsettled by the figurative use of the phrase, three days and three nights-- other suggestions have been offered. In our own congregation, John Tixier has spent a significant amount of time studying this and Justin has agreed to give him the first night, September 5, in his upcoming Wednesday night series, ‘Ask Your Questions’ to present another perspective. If you’re interested, there is another way to parse the biblical data so that Jesus does indeed stay in the tomb for three days and three nights. Again that will be Wednesday night, September 5th.

Well, in verse 41, Jesus basically takes the religious leaders to their Bible--our Old Testament--

to show them from the book of Jonah how a ton of pagan Gentiles responded to God’s initiative through the reluctant, less-than-enthusiastic prophet Jonah. And their response was overwhelming!

I’d like to spend a few minutes actually looking at Jonah’s story to highlight that pagan

response. So if you would turn with me to the book of Jonah.

Follow along as we begin in chapter 1….Jonah chapter 1

1 Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.”

Nineveh was the capital of the nation of Assyria. Their evil had come up before God.

Rosner (Eds.), New dictionary of biblical theology (electronic ed., p. 605). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.14 MacArthur quoting the Talmud15 MacArthur, “T

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3 But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.

…Jonah, knowing that the Assyrians were ruthless Gentile pagans and fearing that God might have mercy on them, headed the opposite direction God was calling him to go--Assyria was to the northeast but Jonah ended up fleeing to Tarshish which was west . I’ve illustrated that on the map behind me.

Continuing in verse 3… He went down to Joppa, a city on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea and found a ship going to Tarshish …a ship headed to the west. So he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD.

Jonah, God’s chosen prophet, was committed to flee from the presence of the Lord. Can that be done? Can we flee from God’s presence? No.

Well, God was committed to use Jonah to preach repentance to the Assyrians. So he hurled a great wind on the sea. The men on the ship were afraid and they began to hurl cargo overboard. Meanwhile, Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and gone to sleep, verse 5.

6 So the captain came and said to him, “What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your god! Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we may not perish.”

In the meantime the men decided to find out who was really behind the storm so they cast lots to see who was responsible. And who did the lot fall on? Jonah. Well, they began to pepper him with questions, verse 8.

What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country?And of what people are you?”

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Well Jonah answered their questions and then offered, “I fear Yhwh, the god of heaven who

made the sea….and dry land… “Your God made the sea?”

Well you can imagine the men’s eyes got really big! And, verse 10, they were exceedingly afraid and said to him, “What is this that you have done!” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them.

{One of the things about the book of Jonah is that throughout the story, the unbelievers are more sensitive than the believers.}

Long story short, Jonah convinced them that it would go better for them if they threw him overboard. Finally they did. And, verse 15, the sea ceased from its raging.

16 Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows. How’s that for a response to God? 17  And the LORD appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

Chapter 2 is Jonah’s prayer from the belly of the fish. And then the last verse of chapter 2, verse 10…. And the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out on dry land.

Follow along as I read Jonah chapter 3, verses 1-9 and I’ll punctuate the Assyrian’s response with the phrase ‘You’re kidding’ or some other phrase of astonishment whenever I think it deserves one.

3 Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.” 3 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey in breadth. 4 Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” 5 And the people of Nineveh believed God.

(Wow! YOU’RE KIDDING! WHAT AN INCREDIBLE RESPONSE!)

{I grew up watching the TV shows The Andy Griffith Show and Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C. (for United States Marine Corp). On those shows, Gomer Pyle had a unique way that he expressed amazement. Let me show you in this short 5 second video clip…

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Google: Youtube Gomer Pyle ShazamUse the 51 second clip… Gomer Pyle (Garsh, Sha-zam, Goll-lee)Play 5 seconds only…

So as we continue to read through Jonah 3 I’m going to show amazement Gomer Pyle style

Continuing in chapter 3, verse 5….They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them. (SHAZAM!) 6 The word reached the king of Nineveh, (SHAZAM!) and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. (SHAZAM!)7 And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, 8 but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. 9 Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.” (SHAZAM! SHAZAM! SHAZAM!)

What an incredible response the pagan Assyrians had to Jonah’s simple sermon! Now in light of all those ‘SHAZAMS,’ turn back to Matthew 12:41 and let’s see what Jesus says next….

41 The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.

Look at what Jesus is saying: “On the judgment day16 you scribes and Pharisees, the men of Nineveh, the pagan, unbelieving, ferocious Assyrians will ‘accuse you’ or ‘tell you how you sinned’17 for they repented at the preaching of a reluctant, rebellious prophet and BEHOLD, something18 greater than Jonah is here!”

This is a scathing rebuke! Gentiles who responded to the likes of Jonah will accuse you religious leaders on the Day of Judgment.

“Jonah despised the Ninevites and preached to them only under the Lord’s compulsion. He performed no miracles and gave no promise of deliverance, but on the basis of (his) brief, direct and confrontive message of doom, the people of Nineveh threw themselves on God’s mercy and were saved.”19

16 TEV17 Handbook18 Neuter but NIV says ‘one’19 MacArthur

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And someone greater than Jonah is standing in front of the religious leaders!

Well Jesus isn’t done. He takes them to their Bible again, 1 Kings 10 to tell how the Queen of Sheba traveled to see the wisest king that ever lived, Solomon.

I’d like to do the same thing that we did with Jonah. If you would turn to 1 Kings 10 please.

10 Now when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the LORD, she came to test him with hard questions.

You can see on the map here that she traveled about 1200 miles to see Solomon. (Say it with me Gomer Pyle style…SHAZAM!) She made a long and difficult journey to see Solomon. “In some ways, someone has written, she forms a more impressive example than the Ninevites, for they responded to a man who came to them and preached on their own turf, whereas she embarked on a lengthy journey to hear Solomon.”20 2 She came to Jerusalem with a very great retinue, with camels bearing spices and very much gold and precious stones. (SHAZAM!) And when she came to Solomon, she told him all that was on her mind. 3 And Solomon answered all her questions; there was nothing hidden from the king that he could not explain to her. 4 And when the queen of Sheba had seen all the wisdom of Solomon, the house that he had built, 5 the food of his table, the seating of his officials, and the attendance of his servants, their clothing, his cupbearers, and his burnt offerings that he offered at the house of the LORD, there was no more breath in her (SHAZAM!). Solomon’s wisdom took her breath away!

6 And she said to the king, “The report was true that I heard in my own land of your words and of your wisdom, 7 but I did not believe the reports until I came and my own eyes had seen it. And behold, the half was not told me. Your wisdom and prosperity surpass the report that I heard. 8 Happy are your men! Happy are your servants, who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom! (SHAZAM!) 9 Blessed be the LORD your God, who has delighted in you

20 Morris

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and set you on the throne of Israel! Because the LORD loved Israel forever, he has made you king, that you may execute justice and righteousness.” (SHAZAM!) 10 Then she gave the king 120 talents of gold, and a very great quantity of spices and precious stones. Never again came such an abundance of spices as these that the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon. (SHAZAM!)

What a response to the wisest human king that ever lived on earth! Didn’t Jesus deserve as much?

Well look at our text, verse 42….42 The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.

‘Again Jesus makes a comparison to the rebellious Jews who rejected Him. “That pagan woman,” He said, in effect, “brought great treasures to Solomon and sat at his feet to glean wisdom from his lips. Yet behold, when I, something greater than Solomon, came here to you, preaching not only wisdom but salvation from sin and the way of eternal life, you refused to come. Therefore, that pagan Queen will rise up with this generation at the judgment and shall condemn it. That Gentile woman, with no advantage and no invitation, came on her own initiative to learn God’s truth from Solomon. But you Jews of this generation—who have had countless centuries of divine advantage and blessing and who have the invitation of God’s own Son to come to Him and be saved—have rejected the Son and thereby rejected forgiveness and eternal life. One day you will stand condemned even by the faith of Gentiles.”’21

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Again hoping to lead you to a tipping point of responding to Jesus, let’s interrupt our passage with three more responses to Jesus….

First the wisemen…

21 MacArthur

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And then a formerly deaf man who also had a speech impediment and an entire crowd of people who saw him get healed…

And then a famous response by Peter to Jesus…

Back to Matthew 12….Matthew 12, verse 43…Follow along as I read verses 43-45… 43 “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none. 44 Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order. 45 Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So also will it be with this evil generation.” Now it would seem in these verses that Jesus is using a parable to drive home the idea ‘that one can’t be neutral (in responding to) Jesus.’22 In the parable an evil spirit, a demon, voluntarily leaves or is exorcised from a person and wanders about looking for rest, a place of ‘greater satisfaction.’23

The evil spirit can’t find anything better or anyone better so he returns to his house--notice verse 44 says my house, he acts like he owns it-- so he returns to the house from which he came. He finds it empty, swept and put in order. Empty seems to be the operative word. What happens when a house is empty? What happens when someone responds to Jesus by trying to remain neutral? What happens when someone has no spiritual resources to fend off

22 Morris23 MacArthur

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evil? Verse 45 tells us….45 Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So also will it be with this evil generation.”

So what is Jesus saying with this parable about the evil generation he is being rejected by? He’s pointing out the danger in which they stand. “They’d been confronted with divine power, and if they tried to live empty (neutral) lives, lives that did not replace evil by the presence of the Holy Spirit, there was nothing before them but the grimmest of prospects. If they continued on their self-opinionated, (self-righteous) way, (having) refused the very Son of God…they faced a future that was bleak indeed.”24

Well two final gratuitous responses to Jesus from the New Testament….

And then a response from the early church in the book of Acts….teaching and preaching that God’s promised Messiah is Jesus...

And then back in our text, Matthew 12, verse 46

46 While he was still speaking to the people, behold, his mother and his brothers stood outside, asking to speak to him. 48 But he replied to the man who told him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” 49 And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 50 For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”

We often forget that Jesus had 4 brothers and some sisters. Let’s look at Mark 6:3…

24 Morris

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In the gospels, Jesus’ earthly family seemed “not to have understood exactly who Jesus was and what his mission demanded.”25 John tells us that his brothers did not believe in him, John 7:5. And Mark records, Mark 3:20-21, that one time his family came out to seize him for he was not eating and they believed that he was out of his mind. Why they want to speak to him in our passage we don’t know. But Jesus uses the opportunity to not so much downgrade loyalty to family but insist on the importance of loyalty to God.

49 And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 50 For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”

Responding to Jesus in discipleship is the most appropriate choice of all. God welcomes us into his heavenly family. We are his brother and sister and mother if we do the will of the father.

Go down into the audience: And what does responding in discipleship look like? What does it look like to respond to Jesus in discipleship?

(SOLICIT ANSWERS)

Now let’s make a point. “We don’t make ourselves Jesus’ close relatives by doing the will of his heavenly father. Rather, doing the Father’s will identifies us as Jesus’ mother, brothers and sisters.”26 “Doing the Father’s will is a sign that God has turned us to himself, adopting us into his family.”

So in our passage this morning in Matthew 12 we’ve seen three responses to Jesus. We’ve seen a cynical unbelieving response to Jesus--Show us a sign Jesus! Do some tricks! (vs. 38-42) We’ve explored the danger of a neutral 27 response to Jesus--what happens to a house when it is swept and put in order….but empty. And we’ve seen the most appropriate response to Jesus of all--following him in discipleship (vs. 46-50.)

25 Morris26 Carson27 Morris uses this phrase

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And in an effort to throw us all over the tipping point, we’ve looked briefly at a host of other responses to Jesus.

How are you responding to Jesus? If Jesus is who the Bible says he is--the Son of God, the second person of the trinity, the one before whom every knee in heaven and on earth will one day bow--is there a more important question?

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On the back of your sermon notes you’ll see the words from Revelation 5. Clearly this is the supreme and climactic response to Jesus in the scriptures. Let me read through verse 8 alone and then I’ll ask you to stand and read with me verse 9 to the end.

5 Then I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals. 2 And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?” 3 And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it, 4 and I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. 5 And one of the elders said to me, “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.”

6 And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. 7 And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne. 8 And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. 9 And they sang a new song, saying,

“Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals,

for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation,

10  and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.”

11 Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, 12 saying with a loud voice,

“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!”

13 And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying,

“To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”

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14 And the four living creatures said, “Amen!” and the elders fell down and worshiped.

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