In God's Throne Room Series

INTRODUCTION

Revelation is a difficult book. We can’t deny that. The fact that it’s difficult might put us off reading it. But as well as being difficult, many Christians don’t like Revelation’s message. Among other things, it talks about tribulation and wrath and judgment. Other parts of the Bible talk about those things but Revelation talks about them a lot. So, as one commentator wrote, ‘It remains largely unread.’

Actually, there are some parts of Revelation which we’re OK with. The first few chapters, where Jesus writes letters to the churches, are all right. And the last chapter, when Jesus has established a new heaven and earth, is all right too. It’s mostly the middle chapters that we don’t like. They’re the hard parts. And those are the chapters we’ll be looking at! I’m calling this series ‘Revelation: the Hard Parts’.

You may be thinking ‘Oh, dear!’ But please don’t think that. It’s good for us to look at these parts. Revelation tells us that there will be persecution. There will be battles. The church will suffer. We don’t look forward to such things. But any normal person wants to know when a storm is coming. It’s now hurricane season in the Caribbean. Do you suppose a ship’s captain wouldn’t want to know if a hurricane is heading his way? Of course he wants to know.

But Revelation doesn’t simply warn us that a hurricane is heading our way. It tells us what will happen. It assures us that God is sovereign. That Christ is king and will come again and establish his kingdom of peace. That Satan will be completely defeated. That God’s people will be preserved. That justice will be served. And that there will be a feast!

So, yes, a hurricane is heading our way. We should prepare. But we don’t need to fear it.

THE STORY SO FAR

We’re going to start our series at Revelation 4. But let’s have a quick catch up with what has happened so far.

In Revelation 1, John has a revelation of Jesus. Jesus is walking among seven lampstands. John is told that ‘the seven lampstands are the seven churches.’ Note that John isn’t told: ‘The seven lampstands are seven churches.’ Seven out of hundreds. They are THE seven churches. Seven is the number of completeness and perfection. So ‘THE seven churches’ means not only the seven historic churches – Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum and so on – but the church as a whole all through history.

In Revelation 2 and 3, Jesus sends letters to the seven churches. He gives them his assessment of how they are. Two were OK; five had problems. Remember, we can take Jesus’ letter to the seven historic churches as being addressed to the whole church. Rosebery Park is one of them.

REVELATION 4: THE THRONE ROOM

We have our cast. Now, John is given a vision about ‘what must take place after this.’ Note the ‘after this.’ Most of Revelation is about what happens in the future from John’s perspective. It isn’t about things happening in John’s time.

Act 1, Scene 1 is a court scene. We see a throne in heaven. The one seated on the throne has the appearance of jasper and carnelian. Around the throne is a rainbow that has the appearance of an emerald. Jasper can be various colours but it’s usually red. Carnelian is reddish-brown or orange. Emerald is green. Just so you have an idea of the colour scheme! I don’t know how to understand all this but it’s clearly glorious.

Around the throne are twenty-four elders. They’re clothed in white garments, with golden crowns on their heads. This is a royal court rather than a law court, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t a law court. When we had kings, the king heard cases. We see flashes of lightning and hear rumblings and peals of thunder.

There are also four living creatures. One commentator [Mounce] describes them as worship leaders. I like that. They say, ‘Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty.’ Actually, a number of Bible translations say that they sing those words. If they are singing then this is perhaps the first of seven hymns in Revelation.

It’s an awesome sight and, in view of what is to come, it’s very appropriate that the four living creatures are emphasising God’s holiness.

But what is happening in this scene? Are we simply seeing the normal, day-to-day activity of God’s court in heaven? Or is something else happening on this occasion?

The prophet Daniel helps us a lot. In Daniel 7, Daniel relates a vision he had. He says this:

“As I looked,

thrones were placed,

and the Ancient of Days took his seat;

his clothing was white as snow,

and the hair of his head like pure wool;