I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside. Revelation 5:4
What does the ‘One of a Kind’ idiom/phrase mean to you? What does it conjure up in your mind when you think of something as being ‘One of a Kind’.
It is often used for a precious jewel or someone who looks out for the needs of others rather than their own needs.
But in our torn individualised society we can be convinced by the dog-eat-dog mentality; that the tough rise to the top and rule the rest.
For most of us we start at the beginning of life being convinced we are ‘One of a Kind’ there is no-one like us and that everyone else is there to meet our needs.
We can call it the survival instinct after all if the baby doesn’t cry will the parent know when to feed it. But in biblical language God says we become convinced we are ‘One of a Kind’ because of pride. Pride says there is no one like you and the universe is there just for you.
I’m sure you’re thinking that’s not me, I wouldn’t dream of thinking everyone is there for my benefit after all I’m not a narcissist.
But I put it before you that there is a little narcissist in all of us screaming to get out; me included.
Do you find at times you just wish someone thought about you instead of you always having the backs of other people?
Do you find at times that you’re disappointed that no-one did that surprise party for you?
Are there times when you feel the world is against you and no-one notices you?
I do…. many a time. Many a time I wish for once someone just called to say how much they’d missed me. Or someone just for a minute said let me do that for you.
We are finite human beings but somehow we can get caught up in thinking there is only one like me, no-one else gets me, no-one else suffers the way I do.
Weirdly even at the time we think the world revolves around us and is there to serve our fickle ever-changing purposes, we also gravitate towards people like us. We need a crowd who think like us or dress like us to make us feel like we belong somewhere.
I remember in the mid-90s to stand out in our uniqueness you would wear black. One day in youth group I noticed that every teenager in that room were all wearing black, it caused me to think how our uniqueness somehow brings us together as a whole.
This the beautiful gift that Jesus gives us, to help us recognise who we are and why we belong together, is because we are all sinners, in the words of a song from a great movie ‘we are all in this together’.
The truth that we are all sinners, might feel uncomfortable or downright offensive but stay with me for a minute or so because this truth is completely life transforming because in the hands of Jesus it has the power to change your life forever.
Jesus transforms our thinking
Our verse today comes from Revelation chapter 5 verse 4. Where heaven was looking for the one who had the authority and power to open the scroll of God’s redemptive plan for humanity. Only a perfect, unblemished, sin free person could open the scroll. This person had to be ‘One of a Kind’.
The writer of Revelation said he wept and wept, this was an outpouring of desperate tears knowing the darkness that humanity would have to continually face if no one could discover and provide the means for humanity to be redeemed/rescued.
He goes on to say ‘no-one was found who was worthy’ this truth is devastating. Our sheer eternal existence depends on a perfect person to provide the rescue plan for humanity to survive, for humanity to be rescued from themselves.
The joyous conclusion by John as he wrote Revelation was that there is one to be found, there is one who both provides the rescue plan for humanity and became the rescue plan for humanity.
And our only qualification to receive this amazing rescue mission – to be a sinner. You see without us being a sinner we are not qualified to be rescued. Every time we deny our sinner status we disqualify ourselves from the rescue plan. And the fact that no matter where heaven looked no-one on earth could be found who was worthy or perfect.
Often our reaction to this truth is either to wallow in the pit of despair because of our sin or to do everything to justify ourselves as a means to deny we are sinners. And if you’re anything like me, at any given moment, you can move from one side to the other of this seemingly scale of human existence. But in the hands of our wonderful Lord and Saviour, Jesus demonstrates to us that ‘while we were sinners’ he died for us.
We are all sinners in this together, no matter who you are, or where you live, as Jesus rescues us he takes us from this dog-eat-dog society and brings us together into community where we learn to love God and one another, rather than ourselves, where we learn what plans and purposes God has for us uniquely for the benefit of the whole; this is where we find true worth and satisfaction for this is what we are made for.
Jesus transforms our hearts
“You are worthy to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
because you were slain,
and with your blood you purchased for God
persons from every tribe and language and people and nation.
You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God,
and they will reign on the earth.” Rev 5:9-10
This is the song that was sung in heaven when they realised there was one who could save mankind from themselves, from their hate, their war, the horror of doing life our own way.
When we understand that as a sinner, whose sin is inherited from generation to generation, our only hope is that there is a ‘One of a Kind’ person that is different from us so that we can and will be rescued.
And look at the gift we will receive when we accept who we are and who our Lord and Saviour is verse 10 ‘You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.”
This is our future that we will be transformed into royalty to do what God had always planned humanity to do well…….rule his kingdom together with the love they have received.
Jesus is the only ‘One of a Kind’
This truth should bring a relief from our endless cycle of self-rescue. To acknowledge and receive Jesus as the only ‘One of a Kind’ as he went to the cross as the representative of every sinner who had ever or will ever sin. And as our representative we can receive his payment for our sin knowing he provides this to rescue us from our ‘self’ness – our obsession with self and instead learn to live life in God’s kingdom that teaches us who we really are and what we are really here to do.
And may we be humble enough to accept our sinner status as we see Jesus as our precious ‘one of a kind ‘jewel who will transform us from sinner to saint, so we can join in with ‘every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying:
“To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
be praise and honour and glory and power,
for ever and ever!” Rev 5:13
Amen.
Living His Word 