Opening Question
What would you give up for someone you love?

Introduction
The lesson this week is how the concept of sacrifice found throughout the Bible plays a role in the prophetic literature. As an earlier lesson noted, Genesis is the starting point for most major topics in Scripture, and certainly in Revelation. Sacrifice is so much a part of Revelation, that if we miss the temple/sanctuary structure of the book and the various sacrifices that take place there, we will fail to grasp the big picture of the Great Controversy, and how God uses His own sacrifice and that of His son to bring about everlasting peace. 

Genesis 4: First Sacrifices
Although Adam and Eve are said (see Gen. 3) to be clothed with skins often assumed to be animals sacrificed to take their place in death, the first sacrifices mentioned in Genesis are by their sons. Each bring an offering to God: Abel’s is accepted and Cain’s is not. Read Genesis 4 through for the story here. Some have suggested that the type of offering is what mattered most, yet both fruit of the ground and herd animals were accepted as offerings at the sanctuary. Here, the text suggests that is isn’t the exact gift offered, but the heart/attitude of the offeror that mattered to God. And yet, the animal offerings had a specific purpose—that of pointing to a sin-bearer, a redeemer that would give life. This becomes an important part of God’s conversation with Cain. Can becomes angry, kills his brother, and essentially offers his own brother up as a sacrifice. 

This story forms a background to the 5^th seal in Revelation 6. There, souls under the altar cry out to God for justice and vengeance against those who have taken their lives without cause. Careful readers of the Bible will note that in the Hebrew sanctuary, the blood of the sacrificed animals would be poured out at the base of the altar. (Exo 29:12, Lev 4:7, etc.) This means that the blood poured out there has been sacrificed, just as Jesus’ blood was poured out. We are not to understand from this image that people are still alive after death any more than Abel was alive; yet God said of Abel to his brother, “you brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground” where it was spilled. 

How does the concept of sacrifice strike you? In the west today, most people do not offer animal sacrifices (except for food, perhaps); what are the lessons God wants us to notice about taking life of an animal?  

Jesus as Lamb
Throughout the New Testament, there are references to Jesus as a sacrifice or lamb. John the Baptist points to Jesus at he beginning of His ministry (John 1:29, 36) as the “lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” This identification of Jesus with the sacrificial lamb may be the first time Jewish believers tied the Messiah’s work with that of sacrificial life-giving. 

Paul also alludes to Jesus a sacrifice in 1 Corinthians 5:7 when he says, “⁷ Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. ⁸ Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” This statement links Jesus’ death with that of a specific sacrifice, that of the Passover lamb. 

In a more general way, Paul speaks to the Ephesians about Jesus as sacrifice: “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; ² and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.” In this case, Paul notes that Jesus willingly gave Himself up as an offering. This offering is dramatic evidence of His love for us.

We find this same language of Jesus in Hebrews 9:24-26, where Jesus puts away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. But we read more in Hebrews 9:11-15, and 10:1-10. Animal sacrifices could never truly make atonement for humans. Their value is no true replacement for human life. 

In what way is Jesus’ death better than the sacrifices of lambs/sheep (and bulls and goats)? How can the sacrifice of Jesus “cleanse our conscience” as Hebrews 9:14 suggests? What effect does meditating on the cross and Christ’s sacrifice have on your heart?

Revelation 5
Jesus, throughout Revelation is associated with blood, often (but not always) His own. This is especially the case in ch. 5. There, Jesus is pictured as the only one who is worthy to open the seven-sealed scroll. It’s amazing that even God sitting on the throne cannot open the scroll; though it seems to be less about ability/power than legal right, that is, worthiness.

In the Greco-Roman world, scrolls sealed with seven seals often represented a will, covenant or testament, and could also be related to a law. That John weeps when nobody is found worthy to open the scroll suggests the closed-book is significant for him personally. It’s likely this is a will, and requires someone’s death. As we read, Jesus is declared to be the Lion of the tribe of Judah who has “overcome” so that He is now worthy to open the sealed scroll. 

But what John sees is not a lion, but a lamb who looks as if He’s been slain. The death of the lamb is required to open the scroll. The purchasing of people with His blood is the required event that leads to the scroll’s opening, and the roll of the saints being called. We know we inherit all things because of Christ’s sacrificial death. (see Col. 1:9-12 as well). We inherit because Jesus gave all. 

How does the conquering lion/slain lamb imagery help us understand the work and character of Christ? How does Jesus actually “overcome in this case? Is it this a model for us?

Closing Comments
In Revelation, Jesus gives all so that we might live. We are valuable enough that He would purchase us, and the cost? His own blood. We are worth the price to Him. Wow!