The God Who is Worthy

Introduction

Last week we were in Acts 16, in Philippi where we saw worship offered while circumstances were painful. We saw God use or create a situation that brought about an encounter with Him in which several people

A slave girl, a jailer entire household, and even Paul and Silas were forever changed. Not one of them including the prisoners had imagine that, that was what that day would bring.

Now our study will take us all the way to the right of the Book. We will spend our last two messages in the book of Revelation. Today we see John taken to heaven.

He has an encounter with God where he is shown why God is worthy of worship regardless of circumstances. Revelation 4 constitutes a paradigm shift.

It is designed to shift our perspective from what is happening on earth to the throne that governs everything. It renders our circumstances as significant within cosmic realities rather than merely random suffering and inconveniences.

The narrative in Revelation 2-3 is intensely earthly. We see the churches dealing with persecution, compromise, false teaching, spiritual deadness, complacency and such things it is overwhelming.

We see the throne and the One seated upon it. We see the heavenly court surrounding that throne and the worship directed a the One the Creator who is worthy because all things exist by His will.

I. We Encounter the God Who Reigns (vv. 1-3)

Revelation 4:1 LSB

1 After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven, and the first voice which I had heard, like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things.”

Notice that John does not discover heaven or gain access as a result of his own ingenuity. As we have seen before… God initiates the encounter. The encounter is not even an invitation or suggestion:

“Come up here, and I will show you…”

God determines what John needs to see, what he needs to know, and when he needs to know it. John has just been dealing with what is happening among the churches on earth. That is no doubt overwhelming.

So now, God allows him to see earthly reality but from heaven's perspective. The circumstances on Earth haven't necessarily changed but the vantage point has.

Christianity does not require us to pretend that earthly circumstances are not real. Revelation acknowledges persecution, suffering, compromise, death, poverty, opposition. These things are real.

Like the old saying goes, "The struggle is real." Every difficult circumstance you're facing is absolutely real.

But Revelation 4 shows us, in effect, that you cannot correctly interpret what is happening down here until you understand what is happening up there.

Revelation 4:2 LSB

2 Immediately I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne was standing in heaven, and One sitting on the throne.

Of all of the things to notice in heaven streets of gold, departed believers, perhaps the Apostle Paul, John’s, attention is immediately drawn to the throne and the One sitting on it.

Whatever chaos is happening on Earth is not happening in heaven. The throne is set; it is established. God is not scrambling to establish control.

Our circumstances may change but the throne does not change occupants. And as John is intently looking at this throne, he begins to struggle to describe the one sitting on it.

Revelation 4:3 LSB

3 And He who was sitting was like a jasper stone and a sardius in appearance; and there was a rainbow around the throne, like an emerald in appearance.

John does not describe God's physical anatomy. He describes what he sees through brilliance, precious stones, color, and radiance. John encounters the living God and this living God is transcendent.

The throne communicates sovereignty and the one sitting upon it communicates personal rule. The radiance of it all communicates transcendent glory and the rainbow has nothing to do with gay parades or alternative lifestyles.

It is a reminder that the sovereign God is also the covenant-keeping God, the God who placed this rainbow in the sky, promising never to destroy the earth by water again.

The God who sovereignly judges the world is the same God who remembers and keeps His covenant. Sovereignty and faithfulness surround the same throne.

John has discovered something invaluable. He has discovered that his circumstances, although very real, are governed by a sovereign omnipotent God.

Before John is to know what will take place, John will know Who is sitting on the throne while it takes place.

II. We Encounter the God Who is Holy (vv. 4-8)

John’s vision begins to expand as everything surrounding the throne reinforces the majesty and holiness of the One seated upon it.

Revelation 4:4 LSB

4 Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and upon those thrones I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white garments, and golden crowns on their heads.

The identity of these elders is debated. However, I believe there is strong biblical evidence to conclude that this scene is a representation of the redeemed people of God understood as the twelve tribes plus the twelve apostles.

They possess thrones but their thrones surround His throne… they possess crowns but by verse 10 they are cast before His throne. Whatever authorities they possess, it is subordinate to His supreme authority.

Revelation 4:5 LSB

5 And out from the throne come flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder. And there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.

Obviously we see this imagery before:

Exodus 19:16 LSB

16 So it happened on the third day, when it was morning, that there were thunder and lightning flashes and a thick cloud upon the mountain and a very loud trumpet sound, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled.

Just like in Sinai, what John encounters is terrifyingly majestic. The throne is not a comfortable chair occupied by a harmless deity. The God John encounters is the Holy God whose presence once caused Israel to tremble at Sinai.

The seven spirits of God should not be understood as seven holy spirits. There's only one but this language communicates fullness or completeness. It is the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Consider:

Isaiah 11:2 LSB

2 The Spirit of Yahweh will rest on Him, The spirit of wisdom and understanding, The spirit of counsel and might, The spirit of knowledge and the fear of Yahweh.

John’s language communicates the fullness and completeness of the one Holy Spirit, imagery that likely draws upon Isaiah’s description of the Spirit.

Revelation 4:6–8 LSB

6 And before the throne there was something like a sea of glass, like crystal. And in the center and around the throne, four living creatures full of eyes in front and behind. 7 And the first creature was like a lion, and the second creature like a calf, and the third creature had a face like that of a man, and the fourth creature was like a flying eagle. 8 And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within, and day and night they do not cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come.”

We have very strong OT imagery from Ezekiel 1 and Isaiah 6. These two prophets saw very similar visions of what John is now witnessing. We covered these in much more detail in our study of Revelation.

But the destination is not the creatures themselves. The destination of the vision is what these creatures are saying and what they are doing. Back on week 2 we studied what Isaiah saw:

Isaiah 6:3 LSB

3 And one called out to another and said, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is Yahweh of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory.”

More than 800 years later John hears the same refrain:

“Holy, Holy, Holy”

The song has not changed because the God they are singing about Has not changed, cannot change, will not change. There is no shadow of turning with Him.

The living creatures do not only say "holy, holy, holy," demonstrating His absolute otherness and moral perfection. But there are other attributes attached to this eternal reality:

“Lord God, the Almighty”

Because he's the ultimate sovereign power…He has unlimited power.

“Who was and who is and who is to come”

That his existence is eternal. He is from everlasting to everlasting. The churches in chapters 2 and 3 are living in changing circumstances. Empires are rising and falling.

Persecutors come and go. Churches flourish and then they struggle but heaven worships the God who transcends time itself.

John is not made to see how big his problems are. He is shown how big his God is, how infinitely greater the Almighty is than all of his problems combined.

III. We Encounter the God Who is Worthy (9-11)

First, we are shown the God who reigns, then we are shown that He is Holy, now the vision reaches its natural conclusion. When creature properly see God for who He is there is no other response but worship:

Revelation 4:9–10 LSB

9 And when the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, to Him who lives forever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders will fall down before Him who sits on the throne, and will worship Him who lives forever and ever, and will cast their crowns before the throne, saying,

The living creatures declare God’s holiness, and the elders fall down in worship. These individuals are sitting on thrones and they are wearing crowns.

Yet when confronted with God's glory they leave their thrones, fall before His throne, and cast their crowns before Him. Whatever honor they possess becomes insignificant compared to His.

Whatever authority they possess, it exists only under His, and whatever crowns they possess, they ultimately belong to Him.

Their worship does not make God worthy. Their worship recognizes that He already is. This is a very important distinction.

Sometimes we speak about worship almost as though we are giving God something He lacks. God does not become more glorious because we glorify Him. He does not become more honorable because we honor Him.

Worship is the creature recognizing the infinite worth that already belongs to the Creator. That's the reason for the declaration:

Revelation 4:11 LSB

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

John gives us the reason for his worthiness because he is the Creator of all things. This takes us back to Genesis 1. Ultimately there are only two categories of existence: Creator and creation. That is why the psalmist says:

Psalm 95:6 LSB

6 Come, let us worship and bow down, Let us kneel before Yahweh our Maker.

Everything John sees (the elders, living creatures, heaven, earth, churches, Rome, emperors, John himself) belongs on one side of that distinction and God alone stands on the other.

Everything is creation and God is the only one that stands alone as Creator. But it goes even a bit further:

“because of Your will they existed and were created”

Because everything owes its existence to Him. Creation didn't bring God into existence. God brought creation into existence. Nothing existed independently and then gave something to God. Everything that exists exists because He willed it.

John 1:3 LSB

3 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.

The churches mentioned in Revelation 2 and 3 may not understand everything that God is allowing. John certainly does not yet even know what he's about to see.

But God's worthiness is not determined by whether His creatures understand what He's doing. We do not worship God because circumstances have demonstrated to our satisfaction that He deserves it.

John's encounter with God does not end with John evaluating whether God is worthy. It ends with heaven declaring that He is. If heaven's response to seeing God as He truly is is worship, what should our response be when Scripture allows us to see the same God?

Have you encountered the living God? Because if you have, you know that worship is all you can do.