I’ve heard it said that the world can be divided into two kinds of people: the ones who read the end of the book first, and the ones who don’t. Which one are you? I’[ve always thought I was the second kind - the one who never read the ending first - until I stopped to think about it and realized that my favorite kind of fiction, at least, are either historical fiction or murder mysteries. And in both I always know how it’s going to end, because I know just enough history to know that - for instance - the North won the Civil War and the English beat Napoleon. And with murder mysteries you always know that the good guys are going to win. So if the
author decides to be avant garde and break the mold, so to speak, having the wrong guys win or killing off the narrator, I feel cheated and won’t read the guy’s next book. Life is uncertain enough, in my opinion, not to go looking for more suspense in my lighter moments.
And so I’m very grateful that even though life is uncertain on a day-to- day basis, we really do know how it’s all going to end. We know that some day we can get off the roller coaster and go home.
Now, I don’t know how you feel about roller-coasters, but I don’t like them. I like to keep my feet on the ground. But sometimes you find yourself exactly where you didn't want to be. We’ve been wandering innocently around the fair, eating hot dogs and cotton candy and enjoying the sights and sounds, and all of a sudden without quite knowing how we got here, the gate has shut and the car is moving and all of a sudden we’re 50 feet off the ground and accelerating.
You may remember the old Chinese curse, “may you live in interesting times”. Well, we’re in for an interesting time, over the next few months - maybe even years. Maybe even as interesting as the end of the first century, when John received his vision. The Roman empire looked strong; the emperor Domitian had a firm grip on the reins of power, but it had been purchased at considerable cost. Whatever remnants had been left of old Rome’s republican ideals were gone by the time Domitian left office. Power bounced back and forth between the Senate and the military, and every disaffected group from Persia to Spain, from Africa to Germany, took advantage of the shifting currents of power. The still young Christian church was an obvious target for scape-goating, and their only hope for survival was - well, hope. Not wishful thinking on the order of , “Maybe the next emperor - or governor - or mayor - will leave us alone.” No, Biblical hope is based on certainty. Biblical hope acts as a permanent north by which one’s compass can be reliably set. Biblical hope is “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. [He 11:1] But of course it’s easier to hang on to if you have seen something, a sneak preview, so to speak, that gives you a reason to hang in there. And that is why John begins the section following the diagnostic letters to the seven churches with a spectacular, breathtaking, mind-boggling vision of God.
Each of those seven letters, remember, was tailored to the individual characteristics and circumstances of that church, telling them what they needed to know and do in order to be prepared for what was to come. But this vision is for everyone. No matter what your circumstances, no matter what your strengths, or weaknesses, or job description, this clear vision of God is what we all must hang on to if we are to keep our balance when the rising G-forces fog our vision and the turbulence threatens to tip us off the rails.
“After this” - that is, after the letters were written down and dispatched to the churches - John “looked, and there in heaven a door stood open! And the first voice, which [he] had heard speaking ... like a trumpet, said, "Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this." Well, we know what’s coming. The end of the world, right? The “Day of the :Lord” with all the scary things the prophets have been warning about since Isaiah: earthquakes and war and floods
and famine and pestilence and maybe even being hit by an asteroid.
But no. Instead, we’re attending a celestial worship service in God’s own throne room, filled with awesome, amazing sights and sounds. There is lightning and thunder and rumblings in the distance. There is a dizzying array of beautiful, shimmering colors. There are dazzling creatures, both human and inhuman. There is unearthly, glorious music coming from every direction, soaring up and down the scale. There is ceaseless activity, flying, flinging, standing, kneeling and praising - and you have to wonder, "What is going on here?”
Jesus has told John that he’s about to see "what must take place after this…" so why would the first thing John sees be a church service? Why does Jesus begin here? Why not just go straight to the point and tell us what we really want to know: how is the conflict between the forces of good and evil going to be waged? What’s the battle plan? What kind of forces are going to be deployed? Is my son - my daughter - my cousin - going to be on the front line? Am I? Are you going to re-institute the draft, God? What about non-combatants? Are you using precision weapons? Do we have any defense against Satan’s weapons of mass destruction? Since we know he’s going to use whatever he has... Is it going to be over quickly or is it going to last for years? Are we looking at a scorched-earth
policy or hand-to-hand urban combat?
But instead we find ourselves being led into God’s throne room.
Why start here? Because that’s where God knows we have to begin.
When we read Revelation it’s important to realize that it’s possible to focus on the wrong things. It’s not only possible - it’s probable. People get caught up looking at the wrong things all the time. Regarding Revelation, some scholars and preachers focus almost exclusively on the powers of darkness, speculating on the meaning of the Mark of the Beast, trying to put a place and a date on Armageddon, identifying the AntiChrist with particular world figures, whoever is the meanest, baddest guy around at the time, and so on.
For some reason there’s a temptation to dwell on the darker, scarier aspects of John’s vision - and to the extent that we do this, we are focused on the wrong things. We are choosing fear over hope. Over the past 50 years or so, prophetic teachers have gotten some faithful Christians so scared of the prophecy about the number of the beast (which we are told in Revelation 13 is 666) that they have made nuisances of themselves - or maybe even fools - by refusing to use Social Security numbers, identification cards or anything of that sort – for fear
that they might inadvertently find themselves stamped with the “mark of the beast.”
Few of these seem to have stopped to consider that since God is the one who has told us about that mark in the first place, don’t you think he’s going to protect those who are faithful to him from accidental contamination? The way God describes the mark of the beast, as we’ll discover when we get there, it will be the result of a conscious choice to deny Jesus and survive, or follow Jesus and starve [Rev 13:11-18] The internet has some interesting speculations on the nature of "the mark of the beast". One was that it’s going to be an implanted microchip which would identify you, sort of like the photograph in your driver’s
license. Another is that it would be something like your social security number linked to a biometric identifier, like DNA, a thumbprint or a retinal scan. Still others conjectured that it would be more like a password or PIN number which you’d need it to access your bank account or credit cards. One site showed a picture of a bar code claiming that every bar code in existence has 666 imbedded in it (beats me, maybe they do).
All of these authors warned of the scary imminence of a "cashless society" and the dangers of "Big Brother" watching. It made me remember the line, "Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you.” Well, in my opinion, these guys are paranoid. But it’s easy to understand why. Revelation can be a scary book. It is not a bedtime story for children. There are frightening images in there. And if you focus on those images, instead of on God, you will be ruled by fear instead of by hope.
Since God knows that, the vision begins in the throne room. The vision begins with the end. Not only “the end,” as in “the last chapter,” but the purpose of the whole process. The purpose of the whole process is the glory of God, and at the end of it all, the glory of God will be everything.
Consider the images that this chapter furnishes our minds with: Awe. Beauty. Riches. Music. Light. Majesty. Splendor. Unearthliness. Angels, beings unlike us. But also elders, people like us. God is worshiped by everything that exists, whether in heaven and on earth. Everything and everyone praises God. And they do it not because they have to, but because they want to. They praise God because when they see him they simply can’t do anything else. His beauty and majesty and holiness and splendor call praise and wonder and song out of
everyone just because He is. It’s all is voluntary. Spontaneous. Filled with excitement and joy.
Have you ever had your breath simply taken away by seeing or hearing something so beautiful that you could hardly breathe? Was it a sunrise? A concert? A smile? A thunderstorm? A painting? This is like that only infinitely more powerful.
And not only is there beauty here, there is power. This is not a fragile beauty. This vision comes with an assurance that – in the presence of this God - nothing evil, no enemy can so much stand up.
Now many of the images that we are going to be exploring throughout the rest of Lent and beyond, all the way through chapter 18, can be frightening and overwhelming. But since our God is bigger than anything the world can throw at us, we can stand up to it. We can look squarely at all the dangers that face us and say, with certainty, God will win in the end. Whether we are presently in the end times or there are still more acts to follow, God will redeem this scary, bloody time for his own good purpose.
This is not an easy lesson to remember, when storm clouds of various kinds gather on the horizon, and old certainties shift beneath our feet. But the assurance of this vision is not new. In his gospel John quotes Jesus as saying, “I have said this to you, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world!" [Jn 16:33]That’s exactly what this vision in Revelation is trying to drive home to us… The NIV says, “You are going to have trouble in this world,” and that’s a better translation, because it refers not just to the bad things that happen to Christians because they
are Christian, but the bad things that happen to everyone because we are human. The important thing to remember,=, though, is that not only has Jesus conquered the world, we have, too. in his first letter to the church in Asia Minor, John reminded them “you are from God, and have conquered them; for the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. ” [1 John 4:4] Because Jesus has conquered, we have conquered. The end is certain. The end is the glory of God. We have seen it, and we know.
But Revelation 4 not only tells us that we are conquerors, it tells us how we will conquer. We will conquer the enemy by following the example of those in the throne room. Look at what they’re doing:
★ They’re singing praises to God
★ They’re worshiping the Father
★ They’re focusing all of their attention on Him
Why does this work? Because whenever we do that - when we praise and worship God, focus our attention solely on Jesus and the Father and his/their beauty and power and greatness - we’re NOT focusing our attention:
★ on our own personal circumstances and difficulties
★ on our failures and losses
★ on the dangers and threats of our times
No. When we learn to worship and praise God as these in the throne room do, we are choosing hope over fear. Since we know who is in control of the whole thing, from beginning to end, and remembering that we know how it all comes out, we can join the “4 living creatures” as they cry out: "Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God the Almighty, who was and is and is to come." [v. 8b] Our God, the same one who John shows us in that shining vision of glory, has always been there in the past, He is certainly here in the present, and He will absolutely be there in the future.
That’s why the 24 elders cast their crowns before His throne. Some of you may wonder what it means to “cast their crowns before him.” At least I’ve always thought that was an odd turn of phrase. But what it simply means is that they gladly give up any honor that has come their way, all the honor that they have received by being part of God’s entourage, all the position that Jesus’ disciples wrangled over when they followed him on earth, and toss it at his feet in homage and adoration. “You are worthy,” they sing, “our Lord and God, you are worthy to
receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being." [v. 11] This God created everything that has ever existed simply by speaking. The sheer futile silliness of trying to oppose God is manifest when we get a really good look at him. God is in our corner. “What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us?” [Rom 8:31]
In 1607, a German named Martin Reinkardht wrote the hymn “Now
Thank We All Our God." The last verse goes like this:
All praise and thanks to God the Father now be given,
The Son, and Him who reigns with them in highest heaven,
The one eternal God whom earth and heav’n adore,
For thus it was, is now, and shall be evermore."
What you may not know is that in the same year that Reinkardht wrote those words, over 6,000 people in his village, including his wife and his children, died of some kind of epidemic, perhaps cholera or typhoid. In the midst of that incomparably great social and personal loss, Reinkardht echoed the words of Revelation 4.
Why? Why did he write as he did? How could he write as he did? He could, and he did, because he understood what Jesus told us: “In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world!" [Jn 16:33]
We don’t know the details of the story that’s unfolding before us. We don’t know the names of the generals or which units will be called up first or how long it’s going to last or even what the casualty list will look like. But we do know the end of the story. And that’s all we really have to know.
