The Open Door to Heaven by Woodrow Kroll

Transcription

1 The Open Door to Heaven by Woodrow Kroll 1 The Open Door to Heaven Today s Radio Study: Woodrow Kroll: The fourth chapter of Revelation all the way to the 19th chapter, God s wrath is being poured out on the world. So we re going to concentrate on the first couple of verses of chapter 4 today, to think about the rapture of the church. There s a transition now going on in chapter 4 and it s that transition we want to focus on today. Let me read the verse to you, first of all. After these things... Can I stop there a minute? In our study two weeks ago I made reference to the fact, one of the things you have to do in studying the Book of Revelation is pay very close attention to little things because if you miss the little things, you re going to miss the big things. Here s a little thing After these things... obviously, whatever occurs in chapter 4 and following, is going to occur after chapters 2 and 3. And if chapters 2 and 3 represent the present in the days of John, then chapter 4 is a transition to the future. So he said, After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this. Now, here s a verse that uses the word after twice. So, it s evident to me at least, that there s a transition taking place in verse 1 of chapter 4. There s a transition both in space and a transition in time. Let s think about the transition in time first. After this, he says, I looked. Now, after the events of chapter 2 and 3, everything from 4 on is going to take place, I think, yet in the future. Remember the divine outline, if you look back in chapter 1 at verse 19, he says this: Write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after this. Past, present, and future. Things you have seen, past write those down. Things that are, present. And I want you to write down the things that will take place in the future. I think that the things that are, are recorded in chapters 2 and 3; and the things that will take place in the future, begin to be recorded in chapter 4. So if you keep the divine outline in mind, we have now moved into things to come. The transition is made from the existing state of the seven churches in John s time, to things that are going to occur after John s time. So, chapter 4 and following represents a transition to the future. But it also represents the transition from earth to heaven. Remember, I said the transition is both in time and space. Beginning at chapter 4, everything after that is future. And, beginning in chapter 4 all the way

2 to chapter 10, everything takes place in heaven. Ten through chapter 21, they kind of alternate between heaven and earth, but things are clearly different here. This is a transition in space. Notice, there s a door opened to him in chapter 4, verse 1. And there s a voice that is calling for him to come up to heaven. I ll explain what that means in just a minute. I want to think about the door first of all. This is the third door mentioned in the Book of Revelation. If you go back to chapter 3, at verse 8, in the message that he has here to the church of Philadelphia, He says, I know your works. See, I have set before you an open door. That s the open door of evangelism in the first century. Then in chapter 3, verse 20, when he s writing to the church at Laodicea, He says, Behold, I stand at the door and knock. He s trying to get into His own church. Here s the third door. Notice it s not in Laodicea, it s not in Philadelphia. In fact, it s not even here at all. It s in heaven. The things I saw were a door standing open in heaven. Now, I m going to take that just as it s written. This is a door opened to him in heaven. And isn t it interesting here, when the heavens open and God gives a vision to people, that s never a trivial moment. This is a vision in which John is spiritually caught up to heaven. This is a cracking open of the door of heaven. Now, what s different about this is, when heaven cracks open here, Revelation 4, it s not a revelation of God in heaven so the people below can see it; John is actually caught up to heaven to see it himself. Now, let me make very clear here. I don t think John physically went to heaven. He s caught up in a vision. He spiritually goes to heaven. He is remaining on earth. He s at Patmos, the island in the Mediterranean Sea, but he says, I was spiritually caught up into heaven to see what was going on. By the way, that s exactly the expression Paul used when he said he was caught up into the third heaven. He didn t go to heaven physically, but heaven opened and he had a tour of what was going on in heaven so he could reveal that to people around him. Now John says, All right, something new is happening here. This is a transition. It s a transition in time, it s a transition in space. The things that are past are now past, I m looking forward to the future. The things that are happening on earth I m not concentrating on, I m now concentrating on things that are happening in heaven. And I hear this voice like a trumpet that says to me, Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this. [See Rev. 4:1.] Wow! The voice here is clearly the voice of the Lord Jesus. And the voice refers to Jesus telling him what he must see happen in the future. So while these words are not in red because they are not direct address to John, obviously John is hearing what Jesus wants John to know. Isn t it interesting, look at the next verse, verse 2. It says, Immediately I was in the Spirit. Now, again, we have folks today who talk about being in the Spirit, but it s not what John is talking about here. The Greek actually says, I came to be in Spirit. That is to say, The Spirit of God so overwhelmed me that I understood perfectly everything Jesus revealed to me. You can t understand the Word of God without the Spirit of God because it s the Spirit of God who teaches us what the Word of God is all about. So he says here, Revelation 4:2, Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne set in heaven, and One sat on the throne. Now, this is Friday, and beginning on Monday we re going to come back to verse 3 to describe the throne of God. I want you to see who is on the throne of God. Just because it says it s the throne of God, don t be fooled into believing God s on the throne. 2 The Open Door to Heaven

3 Now, God is on the throne, but don t be fooled into believing that simply because it s His throne. We want to make sure the Right Person is on this throne. But today in our study, I want us to focus on John being caught up into heaven and what this probably means for us today. Tami Weissert: Thank you for reminding us to pay attention to the little things. And the way that you walked us through that process clearly highlighted just how important those little details are to our understanding of God s Word. WK: Details are important. That s why we call them details. TW: True. So any suggestions or pointers that might help us key in more to those details instead of just reading right by them? WK: I think this is a skill that we all develop but I would just start with my laptop or my pencil and notebook. Every time you see something interesting, just jot it down. When your mind says to you, Hey, I ve seen that before, then take the time right then take the time to go back, find it, jot it down again. I know we re all pressed for time, but you know what? Getting to know God through His Word is going to take some of our time. And I think we ll gladly make time for God if we think He s important enough for us to make time. TW: Yes, and actually, making time is so critical and every time I do it, at the time I think Oh, I may not have time. But when I take that time, it is always of benefit to me. WK: And you re always glad later on that you went back and took the time. TW: Revelation 4 makes a big transition. Suddenly, John s vision takes us from Earth to heaven and from present to future. WK: Now, what is it that John saw when he got to heaven? Well, the description of what he saw begins at verse 3 of Revelation 4. What he saw is really the substance of what we re going to be studying the next several weeks together. What I want you to see here, though, is this that this transition makes for John a very uncomfortable situation. So what does this all mean for us today? Well, this is one of those great transitions in the Bible. There have been others. We did a study of the Book of Romans a couple of years ago and I made reference to the fact that there are great transitions in chapter 5 verse 1. There s a transition in chapter 8 verse 1. There s a transition in chapter 12 verse 1. Interestingly enough, each of those chapters begin with the word Therefore. That s part of the transition. Well, here the transition is after these things, I looked and behold, a door standing open in heaven. The transition is from the past to the future and from the earth to heaven. The transition is one from time to eternity, and one from space the space of the earth to the space of heaven. But I think there s more to the transition than that. I think this is also a transition of symbolism. And remember, much of the Book of Revelation is symbolic. Let me just remind you what Revelation 1:1 says: The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants things which must shortly take place. And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John. Signified, this word signified broken down means sign-i-fied. Signified. So many things in this book are signs of things that are real, but they re written in such a way that you and I can understand them, even though they re symbolic to us today. I think that s what we find in chapter 4, verses 1 and 2. This is symbolic of the catching away of the church. Just like John was caught up into heaven, the day will come when you and I will be 3 The Open Door to Heaven

4 caught up to heaven as well. The word that is used for caught up in the Scripture is the word that I alluded to earlier in the program today. That s the word harpazo which is the Greek word for to seize, or to snatch away. Let me show you how this word is used. Put your hand there in Revelation 4 because we re coming back here. But go with me to 2 Corinthians Corinthians 12, I want you to see that the concept of being snatched away is a pretty common one in the New Testament. 2 Corinthians 12:1-2 says this: It is doubtless not profitable for me to boast. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord: I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago whether in the body I do not know, or whether out of the body I do not know, God knows such a one was caught up to the third heaven. Now, the word caught up there, if you could read through your English Bible to the original language, you would see that word is harpazo. It s the word to snatch away, or to seize. Paul was caught up into heaven. He was snatched away spiritually into heaven. By the way, let me have you turn to another passage. 1 Thessalonians 4, and while you re doing that, let me read to you John 10:28. This is the word that s used again. John 10:28 says, And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. It is the same word, harpazo. It means to violently, quickly, and unpredictably take away. It s the same word used in Acts 8:39. Remember, Philip was baptizing the Ethiopian eunuch and it says, Now when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away, so that the eunuch saw him no more. It is the same exact word. Now here we are in 1 Thessalonians 4. Let me read it to you. Verses 13-18: But I don t want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. Now watch! For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). Now, anybody want to guess what the word caught up is there? It s exactly the same word harpazo. Clearly this is a symbol of the church being caught up, taken out of this world because, beginning in chapter 4 all the way to chapter 19, everything focuses on Israel, not on the church. For example, Israel is the woman who delivers a male child in chapter 12 the first two verses, that male child is the Lord Jesus is Christ. The mother of Jesus is Israel because He is Jewish. The hundred and forty-four thousand that are sealed in the tribulation, they re from the 12 tribes of Israel, chapter 7. The temple of God, chapter 11, is found in Jerusalem. The two witnesses in chapter 11 are Jewish believers. Jerusalem is the scene of a great earthquake in chapter 11. Those persecuted by the antichrist in chapter 12 are Jewish people. The Jewishness of Revelation 4 through 19 is enough to make you think that God isn t yet finished with Israel that God has a lot more that He s going to do with and for the nation of Israel. And isn t that exactly what Paul said in the Book of Romans? Now see, this is one of the reasons why I m a futurist and not a preterist. I believe that the things from chapter 4 onward are yet future, not historical, not past. I think they re future because I believe John thought they were future. In fact, I believe Jesus thought they were future. These things happen after the things of Revelation chapter 2 and chapter 3. 4 The Open Door to Heaven

5 Did you notice the small words in chapter 4, verse 1 and verse 2 that are so incredibly important. After these things it says at the end of the verse, After these things and then verse 2 says, Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne set in heaven, and One sat on the throne. After, after, and immediately! Now, what does that mean for you and me today? Well, I think it means this. That the promise that God made to the Church that they would not endure the wrath of God is a promise we can believe. We need to believe and take seriously. Is it possible for you and me to understand the Book of Revelation? I think it is. But we will only understand it if we remember the divine outline. And the divine outline is, I want you to write down, the angel says to John, I want you to write down the things which have been, the things you have seen, the things which are, and the things which yet are to come. It s the things that come that we re going to be focusing in on beginning on Monday, and throughout the next several weeks as we study the Book of Revelation together. Chapters 1, 2, and 3 relate to things that are past. For John, things that are present. Moving forward, everything we see is something I believe has yet to happen. And that s why it s so important to us. Because if it s future, it s our future as well. Not that you and I are going to be here on the earth during the time of Jacob s trouble, during the time of this great Tribulation, that s the whole point of chapter 4 verse 1. John being caught up to heaven, I think symbolically to show us we re caught up to heaven as well. So you and I will watch all these things happen, but we will watch them from our vantage point in heaven, not from a place where we have to endure the pain of the Tribulation here on earth. Now that is good news! That s perhaps the best news we ve had so far in the Book of Revelation. Unless otherwise indicated, scripture references are from the New King James Version of the Bible. Copyright 2012 The Good News Broadcasting Association, Inc. All rights reserved. Back to the Bible P.O. Box Lincoln, NE backtothebible.org 5 The Open Door to Heaven