Today people have an unprecedented longing to understand spiritual things. People will go to “mediums” or spiritualists and pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars in an attempt to “touch” the supernatural. Despite all these claims of going to heaven and the Lord, the person returning with a message from “God” these stand in stark contrast to Revelation 4, and the rest of the Scriptures depicting the throne room of God. To claim that someone has gone to see “God” in his highest heaven is not only wrong, it is unscriptural. No one has seen God at anytime; even those who saw the throne room did not see God in His full glory! This then stands in stark contrast to the puffed up, pride seeking people that proclaim not only that they have seen God, but that they have received a “message” from Him. With this said, I do believe that people can have visions and dreams but those should be tested purely with Scripture not our own reason, or logic, but solely based against Scripture.
This chapter opens up past what the letters to the churches said and expands. One of the things about the way the Apostle John writes is that he spins the story ever wider and wider until at last you get a full picture. He does this throughout in his Epistles, and Gospel and now in this letter of Prophecy as well. It is so that the reader can have no dispute of who Jesus is in the midst of their lives. God has a plan and a story to play out in your own life today. The purpose of the letters to the churches for us today, were to show us both corporately and individually what areas don’t please God in the operation of His Body, and what things don’t please Him in our walks with Him. As we have seen already in this study, God doesn’t want us to be lukewarm, but passionate. This is the purpose of Revelation that we would draw closer to Jesus not afraid of the images and symbolism in this book, for sure they are scary, but the fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom. Draw near to Jesus during this study not closer to what you want, but closer to who He is. He alone is able to draw all people unto Himself. Won’t you allow Him as you get a picture of what is to come to all Him to His work in you. Someone once told me about the end times, “David the very fact that the end times are approaching ought to motivate you to live a holy life, a holy and pleasing life for Jesus.” This is our primary motivation in studying the end times for they are coming closer and closer while nobody may know the time of His coming, He is coming, and we are to be ready for His return.
This chapter begins the message for the church from 4:1 to 22:21. It moves from the conditions within the churches in Asia to the future of the universal church .John sees the course of coming events in a way similar to Daniel and Ezekiel. Many of these passages contain clear spiritual teachings, but others seem beyond our ability to understand. The clear teaching of this book is that God will defeat all evil in the end. We must live in obedience to Jesus Christ, the Coming Conqueror and Judge.
Revelation 4 and 5 are the greatest descriptions of heaven in the whole Bible. As G.K Beale said, “The main point of Chapters 4-5 is God’s punitive and redemptive purpose for the world beginning to be accomplished through the death and resurrection of Christ, through whose reign God’s purpose for creation will be consummately executed and divine glory accomplished. The pastoral purpose is to assure suffering Christians that God and Jesus are sovereign and that the events that the Christians are facing are part of a sovereign plan that will culminate in their redemption and the vindication of their persecution.” The purpose of Revelation 4 is to give us a glimpse into the throne room.
Revelation 4:1, “Then as I looked, I saw a door standing open in heaven, and the same voice I had heard before to me with the sound of a mighty trumpet blast. The voice said,”Come up here and I will show you what must happen after these things.”
Then as I looked: This refers to the chronology of the events that took place.
This was right after the vision of the glorified risen Christ (1:9-20) and the letters to the seven churches (2:1-3:22). The phrase then as I look or also after all these things is used throughout Revelation to mark the beginning of a new vision (7:9; 15:5; 18:1; 19:1). As John looked to his amazement he saw a door standing open in heaven (Ezek 1:1; Acts 7:56). This already open door admitted John into the third heaven (2nd Cor 12:12, the first heaven being the earth’s atmosphere and the second interplanetary and interstellar space) to the very throne room of God. It was heaven where Christ ascended after His resurrection where He has since been seated at the right hand of God (John 14:2-3; Acts 1:9-11; 3:20=21; 7:55-56; Romans 10:6; Colossians 3:1; 1st Thess 4:16). Heaven become John’s point of view for the remainder of the book of Revelation.
After noticing the first voice John heard was the familiar voice like the sound of a trumpet that had spoken to him in his first vision (1:10) His voice is likened to the trumpet because of its commanding authorative quality.
The Lord specifically commanded John to come up here which refers to heaven. As I said in the beginning of this sermon today, this stands in stark contrast to the “so called” visions that people have had today of being transported to heaven. Scripture clearly teaches that only two human beings have been to heaven while here on earth, that is the Apostle John and Paul in the third heaven and lived to continue their life here on earth. Some may see this coming up here to refer to the Rapture of the church; however, this verse does not describe the church ascending to heaven in resurrected glorification, but John going to heaven to receive glorification. John Macarthuar said, “The central theme of John’s vision is the throne room of God, mentioned eleven times in this chapter. All the features of the chapter can be outlined based on how they relate to that throne of divine glory. After describing the throne, John tells us who is on the throne. What is going on around the throne, what is comes from the throne, what stands before the throne, who is in the center and around the throne, and what is directed toward the throne.”
Revelation 4:2, “And instantly I was in the Spirit, and I saw a throne in heaven and someone sitting on it!”
Four times in the book of Revelation John says he was “in the Spirit” (1:10’4:@;17:3; 21:10). Instantly in the Spirit means that he was immediately transported from where he was into the timeless dimension of eternity. He was transported where he saw the throne in heaven. This means he stood face to face right in the middle of the throne room right where our Lord dwells and someone sitting on it. The throne is a symbol of God’s sovereign rule and authority (Psalm 11:4; 103:10 and Isaiah 66:1). The use of the throne here emphasizes that although God’s realm is separate from the earthly, he is nevertheless in control over earth’s affairs. Regardless of how rampant evil seems to run and to cause God’s people to suffer, they can know that his hand superintends everything for their good and his glory.
Revelation 4:3, “The one sitting on the throne was as brilliant as gemstones-jasper and carnelian. And the glow of an emerald circled his throne like a rainbow.”
The picture of God sitting on his throne stands in contrast to the posture of rest depicted by Christ in Hebrews (1:3; 10:12; 12:12), the act of Christ sitting indicates that while the work of redemption has accomplished judgment is about to take place. In sharp contrast to the casual, flippant, proud, almost blasphemous accounts of those today who claim visions of God, Isaiah (Isa 6:5), Ezekiel (Ezek 1:28), and Daniel (Dan 7:15)
were terrified and humbled by the visions.
John’s description of He who was sitting on the throne as being as brilliant as a gemstones-jasper and carnelian further makes it clear especially because jasper is used first in the list. This is important because the jasper stone is used in 21:11 to describe the latter day city has the glory of God as a jasper stone shining like crystal. Beale points us, “The stones intensify the light around the throne by reflecting the unapproachable brightness, and hence glory, surrounding God himself (1st Tim 6:16; Psalm 104:2).” A Sardis from which the city of Sardis got its name, is a fiery bloored ruby. It too expressed the shining beauty of God’s glory, and may also symbolize God’s blazing wrath about to be poured out on the sinful rebellious world (Chapters 6-19).
The rainbow is significant, because it demonstrates God’s serious in showing His mercy despite the fact that great judgment is about to come. This mercy is undeserved and unmerited on His part, but it shows further; how serious He is for us. The precious stones surrounding the throne with the rainbow are an incipent hint, not only that this vision eventually will issue into a new creation but that I already portrays the beginning of the new creation in heaven: the precious stones in 21:10-11, 18-23 are part of a depiction of the new creation, and the “rainbow is the first revelatory sign of the new creation that emerged after the Noahic flood. That the new creation is inaugurated with Christ’s redemptive work is apparent from 3:!5 and the use of “new” in 5:9 to describe that work.
Revelation 4:4, “Twenty four thrones surrounded him, and twenty four elders sat on them. They were all clothed in white and had gold crowns on their heads.”
Who are these 24 elders? Because there were twelve tribes from Israel in the Old Testament and 12 Apostles in the New Testament I this vision probably represent all the redeemed of God for all time (both before and after Christ’s death and resurrection). They symbolize all those-both Jews and Gentiles-who are now part of God’s family. The 24 elders show s that all the redeemed of the Lord are worshipping Him. The fact that they were all clothed in white is also symbolic. It symbolizes Christ’s imputed righteous to believers at salvation. That the elders had gold crowns on their heads is further evidence that they were not angels. Crowns are never promised in Scripture to angels, nor are angels ever showing wearing them. Stephanos (crown) is the victor’s crown worn by those who successfully endured the trial those who competed and won the victory Christ promised such a crown to the loyal believers at Smyrna, “Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.” Holy angles do not personally struggle with and triumph over sin; thus the over comer’s crown, the crown of those who successful ran the race and finished victorious, would be appropriate for them. The number twenty four in Scripture is used to speak of completion and representation.
Revelation 4:5, “And from the throne came flashes of lighting and the rumble of thunder. And in front of the throne were seven lampstands with burning flames. They are the seven spirits of God.”
This Scripture and the phrasing in it implicitly identifies God as the source of these later judgments. This mean that those who suffer for their faith can rest assured that those who deal out the punishment that God has not forgotten them but He will surely judge them by fire (19:20; 20:9-10; 21:8). In Revelation, lighting and thunder are connected with significant events in heaven. They remind us of the lighting and thunder at Mount Sinai when God gave the people his laws (Exodus 19:16). The Old Testament often uses such imagery to reflect God’s power and majesty (Psalm 77:18). The “seven spirits” is another name for the Holy Spirit.
Revelation 4:6, “In front of the throne was a shiny sea of glass, sparkling like crystal. In the center and around the throne were four living beings, each covered with eyes, front and back.”
In front of the throne describes the place where John was. Sea is metaphorical since there is no sea in heaven there is no sea in heaven. John saw at the base of the throne was a vast pavement of glass, shining brilliantly like sparkling crystal.
Revelation 4:7, “The first of these living beings had the form of a lion’ the second looked like an ox; the third had a human face; and the four had the form of an eagle with wings spread out as though in flight.”
Those descriptions view the four cherubim in relation to the created world; the lion represents strength, the calf domestic animals, the eagle flying creatures, and man the pinnacle of creation. Symbolically, the lion represents strength, the calf service, the man reason and the eagle speed.
Revelation 4:8, “Each of these living beings had six wings, and their wings were covered with eyes, inside and out. Day after day and night after night they kept saying, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty-the one who always was, who is, and who is to come.”
The repetition of holy, holy signifies God’s attitudes. At the core of who God is, is His holiness. Holiness is the essence of who God is. The theme of God’s holiness as displayed in Revelation 4 is the praise for God’s holiness specifically exhibited through judgment. Being holy God hates sin and pours out His wrath on it.
The Lord Almighty is a distinction of who He is. This is the title identifying Himself as Himself to mankind. This shows His power, strength, immutability, and conquering power. Because God is Almighty, He can effortless do whatever His holy will purposes to do. Who always was describes that He was before time. Who is describes that He exists outside out of time out of our comprehension and understanding. And who is still to come describes the reference to the fact that He is coming again for His people that we can rest assured of His promise to return.
Revelation 4:9-11, “Whenever the living beings give glory and honor and thanks to the one sitting on the throne, the one who lives forever and ever, the twenty four elders fall down and worship the one who lives forever and ever. And they lay their crowns down before the throne and say, “You are worthy, O Lord our god, to receive glory and honor and power. For You created everything, and it is for your pleasure that they exist and were created.”
These hymns explicit the main point of the vision and of the whole chapter: God is to be glorified because of his holiness and sovereignty. The bowing down of the elders is significant. The manner in the way they addressed the one on the throne is significant for us if anything because they understand that it was not them they were worshipping but the One who deserved the worship. The twenty four elders specifically represent the purpose of the redeemed humanity, which is to praise and glorify God, and this purpose is actually carried out not only by them in heaven, but also by the true community of faith on earth.
The basis of the praises is two fold one God’s creation is based solely on his will and proceeds from it, and two God’s “power” is revealed through creation, as demonstrated by the praising recognition of his created beings. These verse signify once again that despite all that is going to happen in the coming future that He is absolutely holy, that we can worship Him because He knows all that is going to happen. He is under control, and we can worship Him as a result of that. Express who you are to who He is, and allow who He is to radiate who you are. Then you will be expressing yourself to the one who is holy, and allowing His holiness to radiate you. He created everything for His divine pleasure and that includes you reading this.
Our world today is on a one way all expenses paid trip to experience this judgment. Nobody can stop it, and Scripture foretells it but what you can do to be ready for it, is to make sure you are in a right standing relationship with Jesus Christ. If you haven’t entered into a relationship with Him today, there is no greater time than right now for you. Don’t harden your heart like the Pharisees did and then turned away. It’s the truth that matters, the truth that God is real in your own life. Judgment or no judgment, the fact still remains you will stand before God whether you believe in who He is or not and you will be called to give an account of what took place in your life. Make the decision today of where you will spend your eternity.
His Divine mercy demands that He supplant His judgment which He partially satiated at the Cross, but the time is coming when His divine mercy will run out. Don’t be one of those who are “left behind” but one who will be with Him. This glimpse of heaven is to remind us that ultimately everything in this life is fleeting away, that all is vanity, but in pursuing God there is life everlasting.
God bless,
Pastor David
