Before God’s Awesome Throne

Every time I preach I am struck with the weightiness of the task of opening God’s Word and sharing it.

The picture of God in this chapter is richer, higher, deeper, more awe-inspiring and far more glorious than I know how to express with my feeble words.

I feel a bit like Isaiah who said “Woe is me, I am undone, I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”

Who are we…that we should see the Lord high and lifted up?

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Here in Revelation 4 we are given a glimpse into the very THRONE room of heaven…

There are 3 THINGS that immediately stand out about this passage…I don’t want you to miss:

First…it shows us a remarkable picture of…the GLORY of God!

Second…the use of the word “Throne” used 10x

Third…WHERE this chapter is LOCATED!

Here we have a magnificent, awesome picture of the sovereign, holy God of the universe…but it comes immediately AFTER the practical, nitty gritty letters to 7 churches. (Revelation 2-3)

Revelation 2-3 may seem disconnected…to the rest…BUT they are very CONNECTED…to the vision of God in Revelation 4-5…

Revelation 4-5 is the ANSWER to the problems posed in Revelation 2-3.

Remember each of the seven churches were called to be Victorious, Conquer, Overcome.

How do you do that? Just do it! Here is how you conquer/overcome…You read Revelation 4-5

Get a breath taking view of God and the Lamb…and gaze into the throne room of Heaven…

Whatever problem the church faces…

the ANSWER is to…see God as He truly is…

All glorious…All sufficient…All wonderful…All-amazing!

Have you…

Lost your love for Jesus? (Ephesus)…

Faced Persecution? (Smyrna, Philadelphia)…

Encountering bad theology (Pergamum)…

Struggled with impurity & immorality? (Thyatira)…

Looked great outside but inside you’re dead and weak? (Sardis)…

Been Lukewarm? Think you’ve done well…but are nothing but wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked…(Laodicea)…

You need to know God better. Get a glimpse of the God who is!

David Wells “God in the Wasteland,

“The fundamental problem in the evangelical world today is that God rests too inconsequentially upon the church. His truth is too distant, His grace is too ordinary, His judgment is too benign, His gospel is too easy, and His Christ is too common.”

It is God who we need the most!

TRANSCENDENCE…He exists outisde of time and space…above and beyond our understanding… to rise above, surpass, succeed.”

IMMANENCE…He is in all of creagtion…He is near…we can know Him and He knows us…

Some churches shy away from telling people about the reality of the God of the Bible…

Maybe they don’t really know Him…or prefer a trivial understanding of God…keep to basics of what can be understood…rather than face to face with the Lord of the universe…(immanence)

Or perhaps…deep down…think God is irrelevant to our day to day lives. (transcendence)

But actually…knowing God in His transcendent, powerful holiness…is the most relevant things for our life.

How different our circumstances would look…after we get a true glimpse of God.

We struggle with pride & unbelief:

Pride=thinking too much of self…

Unbelief=thinking too little of God

Both sins are remedied by seeing God as…all glorious….all sufficient…all magnificent…

Makes us see that we are a lot weaker than we thought and God is a lot stronger than we imagined.

So when tempted…to be complacent…(Ephesus, Sardis, Laodicea)

Then we need to know God is magnificent and mighty…and we are not.

So when I am tempted to be afraid, to worry or compromise…Smyrna, Pergamum, Philadelphia…

Then we need to know God is sovereign and powerful and especially when we feel the weakest. Seeing and savouring God is what we need the most…that’s why 4-5 follow all the problems in 2-3.

Revelation 4…we are going to go through this text in two ways…ZOOM lens…WIDE ANGLE

Zoom lens…look close…it is a strange chapter with weird looking beasts. Ask…What does John mean and what does He see?

Revelation 4:1 After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice, which I heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.”

John saw…a door open in heaven…heard a booming voice…and he witnessed an eternal throne!

Then John says “I heard a voice like a trumpet…” This is the voice of Jesus Christ. (Revelation 1:10)

“That voice (Jesus) said to John “Come up here… Wow! What an invitation!

Best not to think yet of this as the place where we will one day spend eternity…but rather see this place…this is heaven a place of true spiritual reality…this open door gives us a glimpse into God’s throne room and…what is taking place right now…and what will endure for all of eternity.

This is reality: more real/influential/consequential and more long lasting than our circumstances “I will show you what must take place after this… “ (after this first century)… Jesus told John to write what he had seen, those that are and those to take place. Rev 1:19

Revelation 4:2 “At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne.

At once…John was “…in the spirit…spirit prompted…induced vision or trance…he saw a throne.

Obviously the one sitting there is God sitting on the throne…

(Use imagination based on text)

John does not describe for us physical features of what God looks like…He is spirit…

What John gives us is a glimpse of His glory…not physical features (facial contours or size of muscles

This is consistent with the Bible’s prohibition of making images of God (Deuteronomy 4:15ff)

Even in John’s vivid description…God the Father Himself remains hidden from sight veiled…as Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 6:16 “…who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen.” From here in Revelation 4…what John sees…are rooted in OT pictures & vocabulary…walk thru them

Revelation 4:3 “And He who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald."

John sees God as Jasper and Carnelian…hard to know exactly what these Greek words mean.

Jasper…is usually red, yellow, or brown in colour (not transparent nor translucent)

Carnelian… is a reddish brown stone that can be (clear to semi-translucent)

So John sees something like precious stones that he can’t fully see through, probably radiating hues of red and reddish brown light.

Characteristics of the glory of God!

Both stones are found in the priestly breast piece of the high priest Exodus 28

Both stones are also found in the wall/foundation of the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21

The idea that God is shining from these brilliant reds and greens from the throne…

The rainbow like an emerald…reminds of God’s promise (patient mercy) to Noah. Ezekiel 1:28

Revelation 4:4 “Around the throne were twenty four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty four elders, clothed in white garments, with golden crowns on their heads.”

Then John sees 24 elders…WHO ARE THEY? This is a picture of the church triumphant past, present and future…

12 different options…are these angels? possible…but they have white robes and golden crowns…

Remember white garments & crowns are given to believers who have overcome…

So it seems to me that these represent the church that has done what Christ has told them to do in Revelation 2-3.

They have overcome and are now reigning and ruling with white robes and golden crowns!

It could be the #24 is symbolic of the elect of both Old and New Testaments…

It could be 12 tribes of Old and 12 apostles of the New and tribes are inscribed in New Jerusalem

Revelation 4:5 “From the throne came flashes of lightening, and rumblings and peals of thunder, and before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God…”

Lightning…rumblings peals of thunder…sound familiar?

Exodus 19 when God descended on Mt Sinai Symbols & signs that God’s presence and His power are in this place.

God’s holiness can be scary.

7 torches of fire…lamps…this is imagery taken from the menorah in the tabernacle Exodus 25 (Zech.4)

The seven torches constantly burning…a visible representation of the Holy Spirit

Revelation 4:6a “…and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal…”

Sea of glass…clear as crystal…many allusions here…maybe one or the other…

There was outside of the temple…basin in tabernacle…before you got to the altar for offering sacrifices and then the basin… priests would wash…this basin was also called “the sea” 1 Kings 7:3.

It may also be a symbol of peace rather than violence…this may be difficult for us…because we love the shores of Lake Erie, or the Atlantic Ocean…or walking along the beach…

But for God’s people, the sea was a place of chaos, abyss, disorder & destruction…origin of storms Others point to this sea of glass…this world that was full of violence is now at rest (See: Ezekiel 1:22)

Revelation 4:6b-8 “And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight.”

The point of these descriptions seem to be the way these 4 living creatures reflect the glory of God.

Something about God is captured by the likeness of these four living creatures.

We can speculate:

God is…noble, royal, and fast like a lion.

God is…massive, patient, slow, serving strength like an ox.

God has…the sensitivity and spirituality that we can see in the face of a human being,

God has…a soaring lofty majesty, transcendence like an eagle in flight. (Hamilton)

v.8 “And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!”

Each of the living creatures have 6 wings…(seraphim) full of eyes all around and within…(all knowing)

Again do not think this is a literal picture of what angels look like…or that this is what God will be like when we are in heaven.

This is meant to be symbolic…that’s the point…

Behold this is your God! He will never bore you. He will never fail you. He cannot be overcome, outmuscled, outsmarted, or outdone, and His goodness will never fail. (Hamilton)

See: Ezekiel 1:10…different in some features but basically the same.

What does this mean?…

The four living creatures are angelic beings seraphim…eyes all around points to God’s omniscience…His all knowing characteristic…He knows all things through out the whole earth…

Perfect justice…perfect holiness…perfect patience and mercy, glorious in nature!

So IMAGINE THE SCENE… here’s both God’s people (elders) and God’s creation (seraphim) praising Him who sits on the throne!

The 24 elders….the community of God’s redeemed… The four living creatures symbolic …lifting up their voices in praise to Him who sits on the throne.

Those are the individual parts (don’t get bogged down on details…6 wings? Eyes? Don’t miss the clear.

WIDE ANGLE …If we pull back with a wide angel lens…the meaning of the text is obvious.

Just picture…close your eyes helps…imagine the door…peering in to this great room…and in the centre there is this giant brilliant thrown…greens and reds, emerald rainbow encircling the throne…7 torches burning…before that there is an expanse of glassy water clear as crystal…around the throne are 24 other thrones with elders with white robes and gleaming crowns…inside the circle are 4 living creatures…like a lion, ox, man, eagle…six wings and they never stop saying:

“Holy Holy Holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!”

You imagine that picture…and you think…what is this about? It’s about the throne!

If you want to be an overcomer in your struggles…you look at God…it is a picture of God!

That’s what we see…it’s about worship…

Here is the heavenly pattern for worship…there are two worship songs…chants

(5 songs in these Revelation 4-5…2 are here)

SONG #1 A SONG OF PRAISE

v.8 A song of praise…for God holiness and sovereign control and might over all things

Holiness…God’s unparalleled majesty…of His incomparable being and… His blameless, faultless, unblemished moral purity…percet in all His ways. See also Isaiah 6

We don’t want to elevate one characteristic of God over others…but you have to understand…

i.e. Never hear: “Lovely! Lovely! Lovely!”…or “Gracious! Gracious! Gracious!, merciful, kind though true.

But only Holy! Holy! Holy! repeated three times…that God in His very God-ness…is very much unlike us.

Yes we want an immanent God who comes near and is close & tender with us…

But the tenderness is sweet because He is so utterly transcendent and so unlike us…yet He calls us by name?!

v.9 “And whenever the living creatures give glory and honour and thanks to Him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever,

v.10 “The twenty four elders fall down before Him who is seated on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying:

v.11 “Worthy are You, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honour and power, for You created all things, and by Your will they existed and were created.”

SONG #2 A SONG OF THE REDEEMED! Revelation 4:11

Then there is a second song..v.11

This one is given from the 24 elders…praise to God for who He is…

Thanksgiving… Give thanks to God that He is God…God is God!

He is the all glorious, all splendid, all powerful, one worthy to receive honorary glory and power.

But it is His divine right to receive all the glory…all the honour and power

A further reason given…creation…He not only created and sustains all things.

All things exist only because God wills them to exist.

If God said “I want bricks to stop having solid molecules that stick together…the whole place falls down…Unless He wills that they exist. This same God…who names the billions of stars…also knows His people by name…

It is unfortunate that often science and faith in Christ are often pitted against one another…because it is those who know the most about the created physical world who should be given to doxology for God…

Those who can see the smallest microorganism…how God puts them together…

Those who look through telescopes the farthest galaxies…of all people they should be able to praise God.

Charles Misener…was writing about Albert Einstein…he explained why he thought AE was turned off by religion:

“The design of the universe is very magnificent and should not be taken for granted. In fact, I believe that is why AE had so little use for organized religion. Although he strikes me as a basically very religious man. He must have looked up at what the preachers said about God and felt they were blaspheming.. He had seen much more majesty than they had ever imagined and they just weren’t talking about the real thing. My guess is that he simply felt the religions he had run across did not have proper respect for the author of the universe.”

We want to present a little weenie teenie, manageable, self help God within our scope of understanding.

The people out there who know what the world is like…know that’s not big enough for my problems.

And the people who have seen the world…know that’s a really puny God…and you are not seeing the real thing

This is what we get in Revelation 4 …is a rare unguarded glimpse of the Creator of the universe

The focus is on the throne…it is the figurative and literal centre of the vision.

The word “throne” is used 10x…another 7x in chapter 5…

Everything is given in relation to the throne.

v.2 At once I was in the spirit and behold a throne stood in heaven with one seated on the throne/

v.3 “And around the throne was a rainbow…”

v.4 “Around the throne were twenty four thrones…and seated on the throne

v.5 From the throne came flashes of lightening and thunder…before the throne were burning seven torches of fire…

v.6 and before the throne there was a sea of glass like crystal…

v,6 and around the thrown on each side of the throne are four living creatures

v.9 the living creatures give “…thanks to Him who sits on the throne…”

v.10 The 24 elders fall down and worship Him who sits on the throne.

You don’t need a seminary degree to know this is about the Kings of kings…who sits on the throne!

That this is reality…right now…much more lasting and influential than your pain (though it is real) more consequential than your fear…or your temptation, or your money or your success…much more lasting than that is the worship that God almighty receives now and forevermore.

IMPLICATIONS FOR LIFE…

The MEANING of the universe…? it’s purpose and end goal is worship…

The GOAL of the Church…

“Missions…is not the ultimate goal of the church…worship is. Missions exist because worship doesn’t. worship is ultimate …not missions …because God is ultimate not man. When this age is over and the countless millions of of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God… missions will be no more…it is a temporary necessity…but worship abides forever.” John Piper

Knowing God and enjoying Him forever is the purpose of this church and every church

To know Him and to enjoy Him we need to gaze upon Him in His glory and we need to worship…

Our greatest need…is to know God…to love God…to worship God and to see Him as all glorious.

The PURPOSE OF MY LIFE…

We are created for worship…we are created for worshipping.

There is something that defines your reality, drives you, something that gives you purpose, something that you cannot live without…that is your worship.

The church exists to worship God…We exist to worship and to bring other people into worship

Having strong doctrine as a church is only a goal because it allows us to worship Him more purely and to know Him more truly.

Evangelism as a CHURCH is only a goal because it brings more people into worship.

Choose to worship God and enjoy Him forever…then we are on the same page

Whatever we struggle with as a church our personally, corporately as a church…temptation, unfaithful, critical, weak, immoral, unfeeling, lazy, bored…the remedy is God. More of Him. More about Him.

My prayer is that God will not dwell inconsequentially upon His church…

May we never treat God as trivial and view our stuff our iPods our sports as truly eternal.

May our worship be so drenched in reverence and awe and so saturated with Scripture and so overflowing with praise… that we can say with Jacob: “Surely God is in this place.”

Let’s pray…O Lord, help us feel the weight of Your glory…we confess we feel very little of that weight, we live most of our days with little thought of You and this great scene of Your great throne room. So let us feel that weight…not a weight that crushes…but a weight that fills & surrounds…a weight that makes us strong. HS come open the eyes of our heart that we might gaze upon Him who sits upon the throne…and cry out “Holy! Holy! Holy is the Lord God almighty, who was and is and is to come.

MISCELLANEOUS

It’s scary like that flash of lightning that you weren’t expecting that suddenly brings to light what you’re doing, like that big roll of thunder that catches you off guard and rattles your whole house and makes you wonder if God has just ripped the sky in half. God’s holiness is absolute. He is personally offended at sin, and there is only one mediator between God and man. This will become more clear in chapter 5, but I have to tell you now: God will satisfy his holiness against your sin. He will do justice. His justice will either be done against your sin in Hell forever, or you will place yourself under the protection of Jesus, the one mediator between God and man. If you flee to Christ, if you trust in Jesus and place yourself under his cross, the penalty he paid for sin in his death on the cross will count for you. If you don’t trust Jesus, you’ll pay that penalty for yourself, and it will never end. Won’t you trust him right now? Why would you refuse him? He has shown such love for you, and God is showing you such mercy in right now granting you this opportunity. “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:13). Won’t you call on him right now? (Hamilton)