It may seem strange to consider repentance as a victory. Surely, repentance cannot be a triumph as it is the admission of a failed lifestyle and a defeated ego and of being rebellious against God - which is the essence of sin. Jesus' message to the Laodicean church (

God's throne occupies centre stage in this vision. He rules over everything and everybody.

What is the essence of worship? It is to recognise the infinitely superior value (or worth) of the one we adore. The original word for worship comes from the idea of a dog kissing its master's hand.

John saw a Lamb. The scene is still in the throne room of heaven. A completed scroll is resting on the open palm of God the Father as He sits on the throne. The scroll is full of writing on both sides, bulging with divine content, but it cannot be read because it is sealed up. This document, detailing God's plans for the future and the inheritance of the saints, is so sacred that only a person as holy as Father God could be authorised to open it. Nobody was found except a Person described as the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David.