The Beginning and the End LVII. Holy, Holy, Holy Revelation 4:1-11, Psalm 29

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Nathaniel Sanders
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1 November 11, 2018 The Beginning and the End LVII. Holy, Holy, Holy Revelation 4:1-11, Psalm 29 Dr. William P. Seel Easley Presbyterian Church Easley, South Carolina Celtic Christianity speaks of thin places places on earth where the divide between heaven and earth are thinner than normal, more like a veil than a wall. And, it is believed, that these thin places are where one is more likely to encounter something of the spiritual reality which undergirds and permeates our life in this material world. I told you, a couple of weeks ago, of my own experience of such a thin place in my home sanctuary as a twelve-year-old and, indeed, long-worshipped-in church sanctuaries have always been thin places for me. Perhaps you also have found thin places in your own spiritual geography. Clearly, for John, that thin place is the Isle of Patmos. Confined there by the Roman authorities, John was in worship there one Lord s Day, when suddenly the Spirit came upon him. And the veil between heaven and earth was not only thinned, but lifted altogether for he saw in a Spirit-given vision the ultimate truth of this life which we lead, of this world which we inhabit: that far above us all, hidden from mortal view, God is seated upon His throne. The all-powerful, all-glorious, reigning sovereign over both heaven and earth. What John was permitted to see is that the chaos we know on earth is no match for, and is already being overcome by, the One who dwells in perfect peace and harmony. Just as He overcome the chaos at the beginning to bring forth His Creation, so even now Almighty God is at work bringing forward that day when the chaos of sin and evil, death and sorrow, shall be banished once and for all from His Creation, forevermore. In other words, John was permitted to see, in a vision glorious and strange, this single but profound truth: that, in the end, God wins. And, therefore, until that day, we who have seen this vision, who abide in the promise of that victory, are given reason to stay calm, to stay faithful, to persevere until that glorious day of God s Kingdom at last fully revealed. That s ultimately all that this strange book of Revelation is really about, the central message: that, in the end, God wins. So, therefore, we who belong to Him are to stay faithful, confident, and strong as we await the coming of that final day. That was the message we just finished hearing in the Spirit s letters to the Seven Churches. And that is the message we will hear again and again from here on out, as we now, this morning, enter into the full strangeness and wonder and glory which is the revelation entrusted to John by our Savior. For, this morning, as John follows the Spirit s leading, he is led to an open door and just beyond this open door stands heaven itself. Last week, Jesus promised the Laodiceans that if they would repent and turn back to Him, they would hear Him knocking upon their door. And that if they heard His voice and opened that door, He would come in to them and dine with them. 1 This

2 2 morning John finds the door already open and through the opening he can just begin to see that it is heaven itself which lies on the other side. And suddenly a voice like a trumpet sounds in his ears, saying to him, Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this. So, from here on out, to the end of this book, what we will be seeing through John s strange vision is nothing less than a revelation of eternal things, heavenly things, things which have to do with the final consummation of all things in the return of Jesus Christ. For, in the end, God wins. In his vision, John passes through the door and suddenly finds himself, not just in heaven, but in the very throne room of God at the center of heaven. He sees the throne, and the One seated upon the throne. But no sinful mortal can look directly upon the face of God and live, so what John sees in his vision is not the reality of God Himself what God actually looks like but rather a symbolic representation of God upon His throne. And in his vision, He who sits upon the throne has the appearance of jasper, a clear stone representing purity; and carnelian, a red stone filled with flashes of fire. Around the throne is a rainbow recalling Noah s rainbow a rainbow which seems to have been carved out of a single emerald. All about the throne of God, surrounding it, are arrayed twenty-four lesser thrones, upon which sit twenty-four elders, each clothed in white garments and crowned with golden crowns. From out of the throne, or perhaps from out of the One who sits on the throne, come flashes of lightning followed by great rumbling peals of thunder. Before the throne stand seven torches, and beneath a floor like a sea of crystal. Can you picture it? Well, perhaps it is a fitting moment for us to remember again that this is a vision, not a literal description of how God appears or what heaven actually looks like. It is a vision, not a photograph meaning that it is using symbolic pictures to represent eternal truths. It is a vision meaning we cannot read it in the same way we would read the 23 rd Psalm, or the same way we read the Sermon on the Mount or the Ten Commandments. Much of Scripture speaks to our heads or to our hearts; the visions of Revelation speak to our imaginations. What is significant here is not the details of the vision itself; but what those details, in all their symbolic splendor and meaning the picture that they paint reveal to us about to us about divine truths no mere mortal words could ever contain. And what this particular vision is meant to impress upon our souls is immediately clear. For this is a vision of God in His eternal glory, God in His infinite majesty, God in His utter holiness, God in His omnipotence. This vision reminds us that God is always greater than even our highest thoughts of Him, that His ways are not our ways and His thoughts far beyond our thoughts. This vision portrays for us something we far too readily forget that the God we worship is an awesome God, an awe-inspiring God. And that our first and right response to the holiness of our God is simply to fall on our knees and worship, to fall on our knees and tremble before His greatness and glory, to fall on our knees and join in the song of those four living creatures, full of eyes around and within, who never cease to sing before the throne of God: Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come! That is what John s vision means, that is what John s vision is telling us, reminding us reminding us of just Whom it is we so casually invoke with our prayers and even our curses. Just

3 3 Whom it is with whom we have to do, in this life and in the next. John s vision shows us God in His glory and it is intended as a summons to awe, to bow down before Him in proper reverence, a summons to kneel before the Lord our Maker. And it is a reminder we so desperately need. We forget so easily the holiness, the greatness, the glory and majesty and power of our God who has made the heavens and the earth with but a Word from his mouth, and who has redeemed us out of His boundless love. Our conception of God is so often too small. Donald McCullough, Presbyterian pastor and seminary president, observes: Visit a church on Sunday morning almost any will do and you will likely find a congregation comfortably relating to a deity who fits nicely within precise doctrinal positions, or who lends almighty support to social crusades, or who conforms to individual spiritual experiences. But you will not likely find much awe or sense of mystery. The only sweaty palms will be those of the preacher unsure whether the sermon will go over; the only shaky knees will be those of the soloist about to sing the offertory. The New Testament warns us, offer to God an acceptable worship with reverence and awe; for indeed our God is a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:28-29). But reverence and awe have often been replaced by the yawn of familiarity. The consuming fire has been domesticated into a candle flame, adding a bit of religious atmosphere, perhaps, but no heat, no blinding light, no power for purification. When the true story gets told, whether in the partial light of historical perspective or in the perfect light of eternity, it may well be revealed that the worst sin of the church... has been the trivialization of God. 2 Annie Dillard, wonderful writer, echoes the warning: Why do we people in churches seem like cheerful, brainless tourists on a packaged tour of the Absolute?... On the whole, I do not find Christians, outside of the catacombs, sufficiently sensible of conditions. Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It is madness to wear ladies straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews. For the sleeping god may wake someday and take offense, or the waking god may draw us out to where we can never return. 3

4 4 Think of Moses drawing near that burning bush, hearing the voice of God and then falling down before Him, afraid even to lift his eyes toward the presence of the Lord. 4 Think of Jacob in his own thin place, dreaming his dream of a ladder stretching up into heaven, and God Himself at the very top looking down upon him and then waking the next morning in terror and in awe, crying out, How awesome is this place! Surely God is in this place and I knew it not! 5 Think of the Psalmist, gazing up at the night sky, seemingly infinite in every direction and asking of the One who set all those stars in their courses, What is man that you are mindful of him? 6 Think of those three disciples who accompanied Jesus up to the mountain of His Transfiguration Peter, James, and our brother John. Suddenly seeing Jesus revealed in all His divine glory His face shining brighter than the sun, His very clothes blazing like a blinding white light. Peter, so overcome with awe and with fear, that all he can do is babble senselessly in the face of something so great, so glorious, so beyond his mortal comprehension. James and John are down on their faces, clutching the ground in sheer terror before what they have witnessed. 7 This, this is what we must never forget about the God who has come to us so gently in Jesus Christ that, in truth, He is beyond us in every way, greater than our highest imaginings. One whose mere Presence among us would cause our very bones to melt in fear and trembling that same awe and fear which the Bible assures us is the only sure beginning of wisdom. 8 And so, and so, first and forever in our lives, to worship Him. To bow down before Him and truly to worship Him. To know, to grasp, to build our lives around the truth that He is everything to us, that He is the One who has made us and who alone sustains us, that He who is so great beyond us has nonetheless condescended to come and dwell among us in human form all that we, in turn, may one day join in that heavenly chorus, singing forevermore, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come! For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised! This, this is what John sees in his opening vision of the things that will be that behind the veil of this transient world and all its busyness, lies the holiness, majesty, power, and glory of our God. The One who made heaven and earth and that dwells therein. That is what it is given to John to see and for us never to forget that behind it all, everything that is or ever shall be, is the holiness, majesty, power, and great glory of the God with whom we have to do. He is an awesome God. He is an all-powerful God. And everything that He has promised us He will bring to pass. For, in the end, God wins. And knowing this, and knowing the greatness and glory and power and holiness of our God, we may rest our lives in this promise and yield our lives to Him in worship and in obedience. Do something with me. Let us go back to our responsive reading, Psalm 29 a Psalm of the glory of our God. And let s read it again, responsively. But this time with John s vision of God s greatness and glory before our eyes and so truly listening and truly expressing rightful awe and reverence before the holiness of our God: Leader: Ascribe to the LORD, O heavenly beings, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength. People: Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness. Leader: The voice of the LORD is over the waters;

5 5 the God of glory thunders, the LORD, over many waters. People: The voice of the LORD is powerful; the voice of the LORD is full of majesty. Leader: The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars; the LORD breaks the cedars of Lebanon. People: He makes Lebanon to skip like a calf, and Sirion like a young wild ox. Leader: The voice of the LORD flashes forth flames of fire. The voice of the LORD shakes the wilderness; the LORD shakes the wilderness of Kadesh. People: The voice of the LORD makes the deer give birth and strips the forests bare, and in his temple all cry, Glory! Leader: The LORD sits enthroned over the flood; the LORD sits enthroned as king forever. People: May the LORD give strength to his people! May the LORD bless his people with peace! In the end, God wins. Let us, therefore, be faithful and so worship the Lord faithfully, in the splendor of His holiness. 1 Revelation 3:20. 2 Donald W. McCullough, The Trivialization of God (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 1995), p Quoted in McCullough, p Exodus 3: Genesis 28:17 (10-22). 6 Psalm 8: Matthew 17:1-13, Mark 9:2-8, Luke 9: Psalm 111:10.

Psalm 29. Elements Class April 10 th 10:45am

Psalm 29. Elements Class April 10 th 10:45am Psalm 29 Elements Class April 10 th 10:45am (1) Ascribe to the LORD, O heavenly beings, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength. (2) Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; worship the LORD in the splendor