Last week I used the last few verses of Revelation 3 as our benediction:
Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with [them], and [them] with me.
21 To [those] who overcome, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne. 22 [Whoever] has ears, let [them] hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
Jesus says, “Here I am!” Standing at a door (not an impenetrable wall, not a ladder that must be climbed, not a gate that requires a toll or special key, just a door) knocking, seeking entrance, Jesus promises that if we hear his voice and open the door, He will come in. More than merely entering, He will dine. With the rich imagery of Communion in mind, we might even be able to taste the meal.
Christ invites us to commune with Him, to revel in His company, to enjoy Him now and for eternity… not only inviting us, but making the way for us by His own Body and Blood. He knocks and speaks and when we, by His grace, respond, He treats us like family.
The passage goes on to say that we who are His, we overcomers, are given the right to sit with Him on His throne. This is what the Spirit says to the churches.
That was last week in chapters 2 & 3; now what do we find in chapters 4 & 5?
After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.”
In chapter 3 Christ walked through the door into our hearts and lives, just as He did in His incarnation. Now in chapter 4 Christ pulls us through the door to the other side.
In chapters 2 and 3 we saw Christ among us, the Church, in our time and in our space: our side of the door.
Now, through the experience of John transmitted to us through this most experiential form in this apocalypse, we are brought out of our time and space and into eternity.
The Gospels are this side of the door. Jesus stepped into our time and into our space. This Revelation, this apocalypse for the church, is now taking us on the eternity side of the door.
What we’ll experience through this apocalypse is fantastic and other-worldly. It is mind-blowing in that it simply must, in reality, include dimensions that we cannot adequately understand or explain limited as we are in our time and in our space. But experience it we must as we are confronted with this conclusion to God’s Word.
At once I was in the Spirit
I mentioned last week that this phrase is important, especially as we are looking for structure in the apocalypse. “In the Spirit” introduces four distinct sections, even scenes, in the apocalypse. We saw the phrase, first in 1:10 and it introduced us to the scene of Christ among the Churches. Now we see it here again in 4:2 and introduces us to the scene of Christ in Heaven.
When we read, we generally think in a linear fashion. We start at the beginning and read the sequence of letters and words and sentences and paragraphs and chapters to the end. When we read the Gospels, for example, our linear minds work just fine. The story follows a timeline. When we read the Epistles, too, our linear minds work just fine. The ideas generally flow logically, one to another.
When we read this apocalypse, we may be best served by adding other perspectives to our tried-and-true linear processing. We can add dimensions… even more than just a third dimension. Even in what we’ve read so far there is sound, light, smells, icons, allusions to other scripture. This is rich writing.
There is certainly a linear flow here, but there is more. These “in the Spirit” section breaks can be seen as something that sort of telescopes.
“The relationship between these collections of visions exists in a ‘telescoping’ dynamic by which each subsequent collection picks up the climactic themes and images of the previous one and unpacks them in greater detail.” [Herms, 150]
I think of this in terms of balloons. The fist vision, “Christ Among the Churches” gave us the central idea. Think of that as the first balloon. Now we’ll blow up another balloon inside the first. As we pump air into this second balloon, both balloons will now expand. As the second takes form, the first get’s bigger too. As the second get’s bigger, it remains contained in the first.
Keeping this bit of structure in mind will help us remember that the whole point of this apocalypse is to reveal Jesus, among and for the Church.
At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. 3 And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian. A rainbow, resembling an emerald, encircled the throne.
I suppose there are all sorts of descriptions of Heaven. Some are based in Scripture (banquet), other religions have their ideas (virgins), some are just silly (lots of golf courses). But here is how one can be certain of Heaven: God is enthroned in Heaven.
In dazzling light and color, John’s first understanding of Heaven is that it is centered on God’s throne, God’s rule and authority, God’s beauty and splendor.
4 Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads.
There in the midst of the Holy God are those He has redeemed: 24 elders, 2 twelves. The 24 are commonly understood to represent the old and the new, the 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 Apostles of the Church. Dressed in white, they have been cleansed and made righteous by God himself. Crowned with gold, they have received their reward from the God who delivered them to His presence.
before the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal
Just as Jesus calmed a raging and chaotic sea with a word, God’s throne calms the chaotic seas of creation. In Revelation 13 we’ll experience sea beasts that align more with the ancient understanding of the sea being a place of chaos, evil, and death. Here we see calm, cleansing waters before the throne of God.
In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back. 7 The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle.
All of creation is represented around the throne. Creatures like a lion (noble) and ox (strong) and man (wise) and eagle (swift) circle the throne.
And all creation worships.
Day and night they never stop saying:
“Holy, holy, holy
is the Lord God Almighty,
who was, and is, and is to come.”
The focus of Heaven is a Holy, enthroned, God.
The activity of Heaven is worship.
When creation shouts worship to God, the 24 enthroned around God do not sit as an audience, nor do they stand to receive praise (they are not God, nor are they sub-gods). They
fall down before him who sits on the throne, and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say:
11 “You are worthy, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they were created
and have their being.”
There are 5 songs recorded in these two chapters; these first two songs worship the Creator, Holy and worthy of all worship.
Then I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a scroll with writing on both sides and sealed with seven seals. 2 And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming in a loud voice, “Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll?” 3 But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside it. 4 I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside.
Words in God’s hand, written on a scroll… but they cannot be read. John, now weeping at the sight, must have sensed the importance of the words on the scroll. Words, in God’s hand, on a scroll, would be understood to be Scripture to one like John. Yet they were locked up, sealed seven times, and there was no one worthy to mediate, no one to bring these words from God’s hand to John’s ears.
Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.”
6 Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. He had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spiritsa of God sent out into all the earth. 7 He came and took the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne.
The Lion, the Root of David, the Lamb… John understood this to be Jesus.
Coming from the same central throne, proceeding from the Creator and Father, the “Lamb, looking as if it had been slain” came, worthy to take the scroll.
He will break the seals. He will read. He will interpret. Jesus Christ, the Lamb that was slain, is, again, the focus of the Revelation. Christ becomes the interpretive key to everything that will follow.
At this, all creation worships:
“You are worthy to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
because you were slain,
and with your blood you purchased men for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation.
10 You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God,
and they will reign on the earth.”
The Lion and Lamb, the Son of God and Son of Man, the Alpha and the Omega who gave His own blood to purchase us for God’s glory… He is worthy.
This third song, and the fourth that follows, are songs of worship to Christ, the Lamb, our Jesus. All creation is joined by the voices of angels, too many to be counted, singing:
“Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain,
to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength
and honor and glory and praise!”
Then, finally, all the voices joined in chorus to both the Father and the Son, the Creator and the Lamb, singing:
“To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
be praise and honor and glory and power,
for ever and ever!”
14 The four living creatures said, “Amen,” and the elders fell down and worshiped.
Amen! Creation said, “Amen,” yes, so be it. God said “yes” to us by purchasing us with the blood of Christ, the Lamb… and we say “yes” to God in worship.
Now that we’re at the end of this passage, let’s ask the question: so what?
We, too, stand at a door. And, as the saying goes, “the door swings both ways” for us too.
Jesus stands at the door and knocks, and I know that most of us here today have opened that door, and Jesus has, indeed, come through and dined. Most here today have received His gift.
If you’re here today and have not opened the door of your heart to Jesus, I would urge you to do so today, even now. Christ is knocking; your presence here today is no accident. Receive Him today.
We stand at the door… but do we walk through to Heaven.
We called this sermon “Transcendent Reality: Heaven Now.”
I don’t know that any of us have experienced a vision like this… and I’m not sure that one should admit it if they think they have.
It appears that “in the Spirit,” John went from this reality in time and space, to the reality of Heaven in eternity. Without getting deep into the nature of time and the timelessness of eternity, we can understand that John stepped through the door into “Heaven Now.”
Good for John… but what about us?
I want to go to Heaven; I just don’t think that I want to go right now. As I understand it, unlike John, most of us get a one way ticket to Heaven.
Eugene Peterson, in his book “Reversed Thunder,” entitles Revelation 4-5, the passage that we’ve just studied, “The Last Word on Worship.” The focus of this passage is Jesus, and the activity of this passage is worship.
There is something transcendent about worship, even the simple thing we come together to do each Sunday. This worship experience can be, should be, a bit of “Heaven Now.”
I suppose that, in preparing for worship today (especially today), we could have worked harder to make it more spectacular:
• Rolling up the shades so that the sunlight blasting through the brilliant image of Jesus in the stained glass would have been more blinding
• Cranking up the sound system to give more of a sense of the hundreds of millions of angels that join in singing worship to the Creator and to the Lamb
• Burning incense to fill the room with an aroma that might give a sense of the Spirit that permeates our worship and the prayers of the saints around the world and throughout the ages that blend with ours
I could have made it more spectacular. We could have made it more spectacular. You could have made it more spectacular.
Worship, even our meager attempt, is a glimpse of eternity, a taste of heaven now. It is transcendent in that the scene here in our midst coincides with the scene revealed on these pages. We believe that what we read on these pages isn’t a fantasy, and not even just a picture of the future, but a reality. When we sing
“To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
be praise and honor and glory and power,
for ever and ever!”
We join the chorus of Heaven, now.
When chaos surrounds us and we pause to worship, we focus on the same throne that is the center of Heaven. This is truly awesome.
The same throne that anchors Heaven, anchors our lives.
Our meager attempts are transcendent; they are heaven now.
God help us to add power to our meager worship.
Cleanse us to worship rightly.
Give us grace to lift our eyes from our circumstances and worship with awe.
Bind us together as Your people, falling down and casting our crowns in unity.
