The Throne Room Dr. Roger Barrier Revelation 4:1-11 Revelation Reloaded #10 R5-1615 Read Revelation 4:1-11. SLIDE #: Will my parakeet go to heaven? SLIDE #: One question I often get as a pastor is, Will my goldfish go to heaven? SLIDE #: Will my cat go to heaven? SLIDE #: Will my old dog, Pepper, go to heaven? SLIDE #: Will my last dog, Becky, go to heaven? SLIDE #: Will my dog, Surely Goodness and Mercy, go to heaven? And Beaufort? Fortunately, Walt Disney provided the answer: made a movie about it, SLIDE #: All Dogs Go to Heaven. Do our pets really go to Heaven? I don t know. Passages for and against. There is a lot we don t know about Heaven and the realms beyond. When thoughts about Heaven flood your mind, what do you think of? For most of us, Heaven is someplace even more comfortable then Earth is comfortable. If we have $1000 here, we ll have $10 million there. It of the pillow is soft here, it will be really fluffy up there. If the music is soul stirring here it will stimulate to the core of our being, there. We are so earth-bound that without realizing it, we think that everything in Heaven must somehow be compared to the way we have it now except there it will just be a whole lot better. SLIDE #: Julie and I in Hawaii: Is this Heaven? It doesn t get any better than this. Hawaii is nothing like Heaven. SLIDE #: Julie and I in Switzerland: Is this Heaven? It doesn t get any better than this. Switzerland is nothing like Heaven. SLIDE #: Julie and I at GGBTS chapel overlooking Strawberry Point, moon rising over SF skyline; cool breezes blowing: Is this Heaven? It doesn t get any better than this. SF Bay is nothing like Heaven. We could spend the our lives fanaticizing about Heaven and we would be wasting our time. Why? Because moving from the realm of the seen to the unseen moving from the creature comforts and tangible benefits we have on this earth, it is impossible for us to grasp a world without 24-hour cycles of day and night. No gravity. No sun. No moon. No stars. No night. Nothing that we call the familiar will be, in that unfamiliar, resplendent, glorious place. Suddenly, John who is isolated in a penal colony on the Med Island of Patmos is transported to a glorious non-earth setting where he is told to write about things revealed to him and we can only imagine the frustration as he tried to put into words the scenes that unfolded before him. Now, everything that happens from chapter 4 on is future. Look at the inspired outline in 1:19. 1
Some Bible books outline themselves Acts 1:8. SLIDE #: Revelation 1:19:"Write, therefore, what you have seen, what is now and what will take place later. 1. The things that you have seen. This is chapter one: The vision of the glorified Christ. 2. The things that are. In chapters 2-3 Christ is evaluating the strengths and weakness of the 7 churches. These things are going on right now. 3. The things that will take place after these things. Beginning at Chapter 4, all the way through Chapter 22, we are looking at the things yet in the future never forget that. Future from any day that we have lived. Future from any era that s occurred on Earth. Meta touta is used in 1:19 and 4:1 After these things John announces a transition to the future. SLIDE #: Revelation 4:1: 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." (Stop at 4:1a) Now, stop. You re thinking of a door, aren t you? Everyone has doors in their houses. Every building has doors. Stop there it is an entrance. There isn t like a knob and key and hinges. It s an entrance. It s a moving from earth to Heaven and the only way John can describe it is with a term we re familiar with an entrance. Trumpet: In chapter 1 the one who spoke like a trumpet is the Lord Jesus Christ. So, it is the Lord Jesus Christ who is serving as an escort to show John into the portals beyond. Come up here Let s pause and understand the heavens. Let s keep it simple and use the Jewish Biblical cosmology. SLIDE #: 2 CORINTHIANS 12:1-4: I must go on boasting. Although there is nothing to be gained, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord. I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know-- God knows. SLIDE #: And I know that this man-- whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows--was caught up to paradise. He heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell. OVERHEAD description of the three heavens. The first heaven is the atmosphere: clouds, thunder, lightning. Where birds and planes fly. The second heaven is the realm of the planets the sun, the moon, the stars, the stellar spaces. These are areas studied by astronomers. The third heaven is where John is the dwelling realm of the Almighty. This is far beyond the familiar and it opens and expands far beyond anything we could imagine. This is His dwelling place of God. SLIDE #: Yuri Gagarin made first space flight one orbit of earth. One of the things they said was a mockery of God: We have been in space, We have been around the earth. And we did not see God. SLIDE #: The following Sunday W.A. Criswell, pastor of FBC Dallas replied: Ah, if that cosmonaut had stepped out of his spacesuit, he would have seen God. 2
SLIDE #: Revelation 4:2: At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. I was in the spirit He says that earlier in the book and it seems best to understand that as a state of spiritual ecstasy. throne Stop! You re thinking of a piece of furniture. I understand. Because the only throne we have ever seen is a big, big elegant seat big chair with arms and stuffing in them and people sitting on it with stuff all over them. And it s all about stuff. This is not about stuff. This is about the ethereal, invisible, ineffable world of the unseen where the Living God is enthroned in his throne room. These verses describe the awesome majesty of our God. SLIDE #: Sports Illustrated Serena Williams Awesome. Nope. She s a great tennis player, but she s far from awesome. If she won twice as many games in one half the time she still wouldn t be awesome. Only One is awesome and He s the One John can t begin to describe in words. SLIDE #: Revelation 4:3: And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian. A rainbow, resembling an emerald, encircled the throne. homoios like these stones. Jasper is a diamond; Carnelian is a red stone. Rainbow like an emerald green halo over all that he saw. John makes no attempt to give us anthropomorphic details. God is often described as Light (Psalm 104:2). John sees the light brilliant light shining from Him and he senses this awesome presence of the throne room. SLIDE #: Revelation 4:4: 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. This is still future. Not yet taken place. These are things that will take place and he sees people and they are somehow reigning with this enthroned one. Dressed in white is a picture of Christ s righteousness and forgiveness of sins. Golden crowns on their heads Diadema monarch s crown, jeweled, beautiful, often passed from one generation to the next. Stephanos is the laurel wreath crown that comes from achievement; accomplishment, reward. usually of plated leaves and ivy and you see pictures of them on coins. Usually given at athletic events of the Bema. These elders have stephanos crowns. Immediately the question is, Who are they? 3
Pages of commentaries are written where everyone s guessing. But we re never told. (turn pages). It s not there. I ve looked because I wanted to be the first to figure it out. But nobody knows. Some say, 12 apostles and 12 tribes of Israel. So it represents the Old Testament Jews as well as the New Testament believers in the church. We don t know that. It s a nice guess. I have another idea. They have been given crowns as rewards, no doubt for their life on this earth. Greek is Stephanos the crown of achievement. I think that these represent rewarded believers, chosen by the Almighty to reign alongside of Him in this position of responsibility. They could be anyone of us. SLIDE #: Revelation 4:5: From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. Before the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits of God. Thunder and lightening are scary: Well it depends on how intimate we are with God. Mom and dad put 5-year old to bed. Later that evening a ferocious thunderstorm arose. They knew their child must be terrified with all the flashes of lightening and crashes of thunder. Ran to her bedroom to find their daughter standing on the window sill, arms stretched out, smiling into the face of the storm. Opened the door and she said, Look, God is taking my picture! SLIDE #: Revelation 4:6a: Also before the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal. Don t draw a sea of glass. It s like a sea of glass. Meaning what? There are three things this sea like shining glass symbolizes. Preciousness, purity, and immense distance. The throne of God was at an immense distance as if at the other side of a great sea. SLIDE #: Revelation 4:6b-7: In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back. 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. Four living creatures. These are zoe. Means life. Living ones. Creature isn t even a term. They added it so we could see it as some entity. When you draw your picture, don t put eyes all over it. I ve seen charts, eyes blinking everywhere. Eyes on hands, arms, armpits. Relax. This is an all-seeing, missing nothing, ever present appearance of angelic creatures. Like, like, like, like Once we learn this we will keep from making silly mistakes. Maybe these four represented the upper echelon of the angelic creatures (or maybe life forms from another planet in the universe!) The gospel, the story of the life of Christ is a singular message yet we have four records of it from four different points of view, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Each. These animals are highly symbolic. They typify a decidedly different aspect of the character of Jesus Christ as delineated in each gospel. BUILD SLIDE #15A: Let s look at this more carefully [Matthew, Mark, Luke John]. BUILD SLIDE #15B: Matthew: Lion of the tribe of Judah; Mark: Ox was the beast of burden; Luke: Picture of God as man; John: eagle, because the eagle reminds of deity. 4
BUILD SLIDE #15C: Matthew Jesus Christ revealed as King; Mark Jesus Christ as the Servant of God; Luke Jesus Christ calls himself the Son of Man; John Jesus Christ seen as the eternal, divine Son of God. Only two have the Christmas story: Matthew and Luke, Joseph s side with wise men for a king; Mary s side with shepherds for the common man. Mark has none. Who cares about the birth of a slave? John has none because God is eternal. He was never born. Only two have genealogies: Matthew because the King has a pedigree. Matthew 1 from Abraham to Joseph (Son of God) Royal line. Luke because Jesus is human. Luke 3 from Mary to God (Son of Man) Mark has no genealogy because who cares where a servant comes from! John has none because God has no ancestors. SLIDE #: Revelation 4:8: Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under his wings. Day and night they never stop saying: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come." Never stop saying Do you see the word ceaseless? Hold your place and look at Isaiah 6. We see them identified as the Seraphim. SLIDE #: ISAIAH 6:1-4: In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. SLIDE #: And they were calling to one another: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory." At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. One called out to another This is an antiphonal sound. Have you ever sung in large choirs, you sometimes sing in antiphonal voice. One side sings a part and another answers on this side. Then together and that group will sing and that group will answer. Say that with me. SLIDE #: Holy, Holy, Holy Is the Lord God Almighty The whole earth is full of his glory. That s it. Stop it or be taken up. Wonderful. They do this ceaselessly. And we fiddle around on earth worried about our plans and our disappointments and our future and our money and our homes and our dreams. Do you think that John right now is worried about supper on Patmos? Did I close the door to me cave when I left or did I leave the thing open? None of that matters! It s all about the heavenly Almighty and the heavenly elders! And the angels shouting and praising in antiphonal voice. These living creatures giving glory and thanks and honor to Him who sits on the throne. Watch the 24 elders. SLIDE #: Revelation 4:9: Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever, 5
SLIDE #: Revelation 4:10: the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne, and worship him who lives forever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say: They fall down before him. This is yet future. They re sitting and when this sound comes they re caught up in it and they fall down before Him who is the awesome God and they cast their Stephanos crowns before the throne. Magnificent moment as we who may be rewarded with a crown or two will realize, this is not about me. This is not remembering my work. This is all about my God who gave me breath in my lungs, and a voice to speak, and thoughts to think and a direction to go. It s all about my God. And we all join in the praising. SLIDE #: Revelation 4:11: "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." Amen! That s exactly the way it is. It s all for His glory, for His purpose. That s why we were created. That s why we ve been made. That s why we live. That s why we exist at this very moment. That is all part of His plan. It is all for Him--our birth, death, disappointments, achievements, our marriages, our failures, our going on with life. It is all about the One who is worthy to receive glory and honor and praise. When we get hold of prophetic truth it is amazing how it reduces the significance of our everyday worries. SLIDE #: WHAT DOES THIS MEAN TO ME? SLIDE #: 1. For those who tend to look only from earth s perspective, we need to see from throne room perspective. Exodus 3:7: The Lord said, I have indeed seen the misery of my people. I have heard them crying out and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them. Jesus and Stephen Old Jewish tradition tells of time Israelites walk through Red Sea on dry ground. After all safely arrived on the other side, the waters crashed down and drowned the Egyptian army. The tradition pictures the angels of heaven rejoicing over the miraculous deliverance. But God was weeping. God s love is so powerful and sure, that even the deaths of those who oppose Him breaks His heart. SLIDE #: 2. For those who tend to ignore the future, the end is in sight. Verse one: These things must take place This is a promise that one day all of our questions will be answered; all of our hurt and pain will be healed. 6
All injustice and oppression will be made right. The war between good and evil is over and Jesus wins. SLIDE #: 3. For those who tend to think life is all about me, we need to remind ourselves that life is all about God. You know what? I can t find your name in here (flip pages). And you can t find mine. And I can t find my godly father. And I can t find one President of the United States. And I can t find one King of England, or Queen. I cannot find one entertainer. Billy Sunday s Bible: SLIDE #: Twenty-nine years ago with the Holy Spirit as my guide I entered at the portico of Genesis, walked down the corridor of the Old Testament art galleries where pictures of Noah, Abraham, Moses, Joseph, Isaiah, Jacob, and Daniel hung on the wall. SLIDE #: I passed into the music room of Psalms where the Spirit sweeps the keyboard of nature until it seems that every reed and pipe in God s great organ responds to the harp of David the sweet singer of Israel. SLIDE #: I entered the chamber of Ecclesiastes where the voice of the preacher was heard. And into the conservatory where the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valley were sweet spices that filled and perfumed my life. SLIDE #: I entered the business office of Proverbs and into the observatory of the Prophets where I saw telescopes of various sizes pointing to far off events, concentrating on the bright and morning star which was to rise above the moonlit hills of Judea for our salvation and redemption. SLIDE #: I then entered the audience room of the King of Kings, catching a vision of Him written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and then into the correspondence room where Peter and Paul, James and John were writing their Epistles. SLIDE #: I stepped then into the throne room of Revelation, with towers of glittering peaks, where sits the King of Kings upon His throne. The glory with the healing of nations in His hands and I cried out SLIDE #: All hail the power of Jesus Name Let angels prostrate fall Bring forth the royal diadem And crown Him Lord of all. SLIDE #: O, that with yonder sacred throng We at His feet may fall. Join in the everlasting song, And crown Him Lord of all. Stand with me please (organ) Prayer 7