A Picture of Heaven

Good Evening, please turn with me in your Bibles to Revelation chapter 4. Let’s pray.

“Heavenly Father we come to you tonight asking for you to give us spiritual eyes to see, to give our minds enlightenment, to show us things you have desired to reveal to us in your word. Speak to our hearts for the glory of Jesus Christ we pray amen.”

The book of revelation is really like a great drama that is being played out in 3 locations. The first is the church, second is the world, and third is Heaven itself. the opening chapters of the book of Revelation contains 7 letters to 7 churches and they are not very encouraging, they describe situations in church life that are a very long way away from perfect. It is clear that the churches are struggling under great pressure.

Then if you look at chapters 8-18 they describe events that will be played out in the world and they are frankly not very encouraging either. They describe terrible tribulations that will come on the world a progressive unleashing of evil in the world, before the final triumph of Jesus Christ.

So if there is a day when you are feeling good, and are filled with joy and you need a good dose of reality then I suggest you read rev. 1-3 and chapters 8-18. You will find a struggling church and a desperate world and in every way it will bring you crashing down to Earth with a thump.

Now the problem is that for some people that is all that they see when they read the revelation of Jesus Christ, if all you can see, is a struggling church and a desperate world then you will be a discouraged person. There are times when the tide of evil seems to be so strong and the church seems to be so weak, that we can find ourselves discrouaged.

I have no doubt that there were times when the apostle John felt this. He was a prisoner because of his testimony of Jesus Christ on the Isle of Patmos, at the time when this Revelation was given to him. I mean I don’t think John would have been encrouaged to hear that his churches were struggling, churches at which at one time he pastored.

I also do not think it would have been easy for John to hear of the tribulations that were to come on the Earth, imprisoned on the isle of Patmos he must have thought there was enough tribulation going on already. Now there are many Christians discouraged because all they see is whats happening, or not happening in the church. Or whats happening or not happening in the world.

Unfortunately they do not see what were going to be looking at this evening. The scene in Heaven, so tonight i want us to look at what is happening right now in Heaven, because when you see whats happening in Heaven, you will have an entirely different perspective on what is going on in the Earth, and also what is happening in the church.

Now when you start to read the book of Revelation it doesn’t take long to realize that you are in an entirely different kind of writing, it is called apocalyptic. It is the gospel in pictures, God uses multiple pictures that we can understand to communicate things that otherwise we cannot understand.

The images in Revelation are not there because God wants this to be difficult for us to understand, the images are there because wants us to understand. We find one of these pictures in 4:6 a beats that is covered with eyes. Kind of wierd to think about this visually, and then were told that it looks like a lion, now when have you ever seen a lion covered with eyes?

But we will look at these things and investigate what they are and hopefully when we are done you will see what is happening in the throne room of Heaven at this very moment, and why Jesus gave John this vision.

A Common Misconception

Revelation 4:1 HCSB

After this I looked, and there in heaven was an open door. The first voice that I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.”

Revelation 4:

One of things that left me confused as I first began to study the book of Revelation, was that I had heard from a very young age that when the tribulation began on the Earth the church wouldn’t be here because Jesus would come back and rapture the church.

There are men much smarter than I that hold to this view of a pre-tribulation rapture, but as I studied things just didnt add up, it was almost as if I had to take passages out of thier context to arrive at the conclusion that the church would be raptured before the tribulation came upon the Earth.

I began to ask people who had studied for a long time and what I found was that there were not many people who wanted to talk about it, I mean sure they would but when I asked some of the questions I would ask they didn’t have an answer for me. But one of the main questions I asked was this, if the church is raptured before the great tribulation then show it to me in the book of Revelation.

Everytime they would take me to . They will say right here this is where the church is raptured there is no more mention of the church for the rest of revelation. Ok but where is this great calling anywhere the trumpet sounds and the dead in Christ shall rise?

right here in ...

While I will agree that the church is no longer mentioned in Revelation but it is because the focus is no longer on the church but rather the events which would take place after the events of Johns day.

If you will remember in Jesus talks about a tribulation so great that there has never been one like it ever in history and He tells us that that day is coming, but He also tells His disciples that the days of that tribulation would be shortened. This doesnt mean His followers would not be here, it simply means that they will not go all the way through these days.

So when people tell me this is the rapture I dont buy it. Heres why look at the verse:

After this i looked and there in Heaven was an open door. The first voice that I heard speaking to me like a trumpet said....

So the pretrib rapture crew will say.. you see there is a open door in Heaven and a trumpet.... but thats not what John is saying, he says he hears a voice LIKE a trumpet this refers to the volume of the voice, this was a booming voice not a trumpet itself.

Jesus says come up here and I will show you what must take place after this”

They say well there you go John represents the church of Jesus being caught up. Wait a minute that makes no sense. First of all this was a vision, John wasn’t physically in Heaven he was just given a glimpse into Heaven, and one man does not represent all other Christians, the only man who could do that would be Jesus Christ since He is the head of the church, but not John.

When you investigate this it doesnt matter who you talk to this is the verse they point you to and say here is the rapture, but I am sorry this is not referring to the rapture so you have still given me no biblical evidence.

What John does receive however is a glimpse into eternity and that will be our focus because that was his focus.

The Focal Point of Heaven Itself

Revelation 4:2 HCSB

Immediately I was in the Spirit, and a throne was set there in heaven. One was seated on the throne,

Revelation 4:2

So just like in John is caught up in the Spirit of God the Holy Spirit comes upon him, and he begins to receive a vision of Heaven itself.

Most people who claim to have visions of Heaven today explain that they see streets of Gold or bizarre sights. But John overtaken here by the Holy Spirit gets a clear view of Heaven and the thing that he notices is not the things that we might think, He says there was a throne

WAS SET

This conveys the picture that this throne was immovable, it is fixed. Even though there are many things happening in Heaven the thing that John notices is the throne of God Himself. I am telling you that there are many things in this world that change but one thing remains the same forever and ever and that is this, that we serve a Soverign god who is the final authority over all creation and his throne is never vacant He rules forever.

Notice John sees the One seated on the throne and tries to describe for us what He looked like:

Revelation 4:3 HCSB

and the One seated looked like jasper and carnelian stone. A rainbow that looked like an emerald surrounded the throne.

Revelation 4:

What he sees sounds remarkably beautiful but also terrifying if you think of it. He says the One seated on it looked like jasper. Jasper was a jewel that that was crystal clear, we serve a Holy Holy Holy god who is totally pure like a crystal with no impurities.

I mean how pure is God that His face is more pure than crystal glass. Around this crystal clear pure face there is the appearance of carnelian some have the stone mentioned as Sardius stone. Either way these stones are blood red rubies and so His face is shining brightly and white with purity with blood red rubies surrounding His face which symbolizes, his blazing wrath about to be poured out on the sinful, rebellious world.

Can you imagine what John must be thinking right now?

Shock and awe

But as John looks he begins to notice something around the throne.

A RAINBOW THAT LOOKED LIKE AN EMERALD SURROUNDED THE THRONE

Theres going to be alot of people who get o Heaven who are lesbian and LGBT who will find out that God owns the rainbow it doesnt represent the LGBT community. It represents the covenant sign God gave to Noah that anyone who is under his Covenant rule, that He will never again judge the earth by destroying every creature in a flood.

This is the covenant of the grace of God so while the wrath of God is present His grace is also evident in this rainbow pictured around His head.