God Makes Us Worthy (Sermon for the Third Sunday of Easter: May 4, 2025)
- Rev. Raymond Doubrava
- May 7
- 6 min read
Texts: Psalm 30
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Alleluia, Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Alleluia.
The text that serves as the foundation for our sermon is our epistle from the Revelation to Saint John, especially these words, “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, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.’” (Revelation 5:9-10).
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus,
What does it mean to be worthy? What does it mean to have worth? As a society, as people, we place worth on various things. What might be worth something to you might be worthless to someone else. You might have that family heirloom that has been passed down through generations. If you tried to sell it on Facebook Marketplace, it might bring you a whole penny, maybe, if you're lucky. But to you, it is invaluable. To you, it is no different than those old MasterCard commercials where that thing is priceless. Certainly we all place worth on different things. God has His own standard of what makes something worthy. He determines who and what is worthy. Today in our readings we learn that we are made worthy by God through His Son's blood shed for us.
Let us pray: Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, we give You thanks that You gave Your Son into death for us who are unworthy, so that through His blood we might be made worthy. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer, that we may always have the sure and certain confidence that because Your Son has made us worthy through His blood and His sacrifice for us, we can stand before you and proclaim your goodness to all people. It is through Your Son's name we pray. Amen.
In our epistle reading for today from the book of Revelation, John is seeing a vision and he says, starting in the beginning, “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. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, ‘Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?’” (Revelation 5:1-2). Who might be consider worthy? Surely there have been some great people in our lives who we think were pretty good people. People who stand maybe a head above the rest, whether figuratively or literally.
Who might we consider worthy? We have two men in our gospel and our first reading for today who, by a lot of standards, the world might consider worthy. Peter was a great man of faith. Peter was a man who had gone out and proclaimed the good news to people. He went out and he shared the gospel with people. He was one of Jesus' chosen twelve. And whenever the list gets made, he stands at the top. He was part of Jesus' inner circle of Peter and James and John the disciple whom Jesus loved. And so one might consider that Peter would be worthy. Yet if we go just a couple chapters before our gospel reading for today, we'll see that Peter was not worthy. Not once, not twice, but three times Peter denied Jesus. Three times while Christ was being falsely tried, while Christ was being falsely accused, Peter denied that he even knew Jesus. Peter protected his own skin. Okay, if not Peter, what about the other great apostle that we all learn about, that half of the book of Acts is about?
What about Paul? Again, he did great work to spread the gospel. He went into communities and took care of the people and the needs there. What about Paul? Well, in chapter seven and eight, we see that he stands by holding the cloaks, giving approval as Stephen is murdered for the gospel. We see that he is a persecutor of the church. He attacked Christianity at first. Even by approving, even if he never cast a stone, he was guilty of murder.
What about you and me? You probably know where this is going. I don't know about you, but I can't even dare to hold a candle to Peter or to Paul. We confessed it this morning. “I, a poor, miserable sinner”. You and I are sinners, just like Peter and Paul. Even those of us who are Christian, those of us who believe in Christ, we still sin much. We still daily fall short of what God would require of us. None of us on our own has any worth at all. We're like something in the junkyard, something despised, something forgotten, something that is no good even to be recycled or reused. That is why as we continue in our epistle “No one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it, and I began to weep,” John says “loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it” (Revelation 5:3-4). No one on earth or under the earth or above the earth was able to be found to open this seal.
Yet there is one who is worthy. “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.’ And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain” (Revelation 5:5-6) There is One who is worthy, and that is the Lamb who has been slain yet lives forevermore. There is One who is worthy, and that is Jesus Christ, the very Son of God, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world through His suffering on the cross. There He shed out His blood for you and for me. There He poured forth his life, being the Sacrifice to forgive you your sins, being the Sacrifice to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. He alone is the worthy! He who was slain and lives forevermore is worthy. He indeed holds in His hand the scroll, the salvation plan that He set forth. He alone is worthy! That is why those around the throne fall down and say, “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, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth” (Revelation 5:9-10). And then the whole choir of angels and elders and living creatures join together, “numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, 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!” (Revelation 5:11-12). He alone is worthy!
But guess what? He doesn't keep the worthiness only to Himself. No, He became the worthy one for you and for me so that He could make each and every one of us worthy as well. He died so that He could come and cleanse you from your sin. That's what He did to Peter in our gospel reading. Peter denied Jesus three times. Three times Jesus asks Peter, “Do you love me?”, restoring Peter to that apostleship that he had forsaken. Paul was a persecutor. Jesus appears to Paul on the road and sends His Holy Spirit, to make Paul worthy. Two men who would be great in the faith and making sure that the faith keeps getting passed on generation to generation. And guess what? It is Christ who makes you worthy as well. You who have been cleansed by His blood through the waters of Holy Baptism. You who have been washed in the blood of the lamb now are worthy. Not to take the scroll. That is Christ's and His alone. But you are worthy to go forth and share with others the good news of Jesus Christ. You are worthy to go forth and share to others that which He has done for you, so that all may come to have that sure and certain hope that is yours.
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, rejoice that you have been made worthy through the blood of the Lamb. Rejoice that Christ has done everything for you. You are worthy. He has made you worthy. Go forth, therefore, as Peter and Paul were called to do. Go forth and share the goodness of our Lord through all people, so that they too may know Christ, the Lamb who was slain and lives forevermore. So that they too may be made worthy through His blood, so that they too may come and have life everlasting. Amen.
Now may the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
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