A Strange and Wondrous Room

Intro: Today is Palm Sunday when Jesus entered Jerusalem. He starts his final week in his pre-resurrection, human body. This time next week we will celebrate the Risen Lord and the work completed on the cross and from the grave.

As Jesus entered the city, (ESV): 37“the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, 38 saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” 39 And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” 40 He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out”

The people who wanted a king so bad that God gave them Saul at first and now they have been waiting for the king to return, have now recognized that the king has come riding into His city. Not everyone realized that one thing Jesus was going to do was place the kingship of Israel and the world back to God, who is the earths rightful ruler.

Every ruler needs or has a throne to rule from. The Bible gives us a few glimpses into the throne room, in Isaiah and Ezekiel but John Gives us a wonderful picture of what God’s throne room look like.

Read verses:

Main Point: God is on the throne ruling His Kingdom

I. Oh, the People You will Meet

Explanation: there is a lot of vivid imagery and what may be taken as figurative language in Apocalyptic literature. We see similar language or types of descriptions in portions of the prophets like Ezekiel and Isaiah that detail the end times or in this case, God’s throne room.

The first thing we see is a door opening to heaven. This is a real place. It is God’s home; it is the believer’s future home. The scene in the book moves from Earth to heaven. John has moved for the remainder of the book to Heaven because Jesus is showing him what must take place.

The first person described in Heaven is God. John says he is the One sitting on the throne. That is it. the word the One. and he was sitting was like jasper stone and a sardius or carnelian stone in appearance. Jasper is some kind of “translucent rock crystal or perhaps even a diamond[1]Carnelian or sardius, they are synonyms. These stones are very orangey, red, almost blood red. If a person is made out of the it may give them the appearance of being made of fire. So you have this being who is fire red in the middle of the room.

The sparkling beauty of such a vision would be sufficient to impress any viewer with the impressive royalty of the One who sat on the throne. Walter Scott says of this theophany, “His essential glory cannot, of course, be communicated even to the most exalted of creatures. God dwells in light unapproachable: ‘Whom no man hath seen, nor can see’ (). But what can be witnessed by creatures is displayed.”[2]

Around the throne are 24 elders sitting on thrones clothed in white, with golden crowns on their heads. Its not clear if these thrones are encircling God or arrayed in a semicircle or if they are just in close proximity but they can be seen. They white represents their purity. These may be idea from James and John when they were talking to Jesus about their place in heaven.

After this person John kind of looks behind or perhaps his eyes are drawn behind the throne to the next strange and wonderous beings, the four living creatures in verse 6. One looks like a lion, one looks like a calf, one looks like a man, and the fourth has the face of an eagle. All of them “had six wings, full of eyes around” (v. 6). This matches with as well in the description the prophet gives.

This seems like a truly terrifying, yet awesome sight. These beings are somewhat recognizable, but yet they are completely fantastical like something out of a JRR Tolkien novel. John must have shuddered when he wrote this and then reread it. their function though is to worship God singing Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God Almighty.

Illustration:

Application: God is worshipped by the people surrounding His throne

We don’t have to wait until then to worship Him.

After the final days and we are taken to heaven, we will send our days worshipping heaven. Is this going to be a 24/7 event? Or an on the hour every hour thing or just Sunday’s and Wednesdays? We don’t know but it sounds pretty continuous.

says He [God] is your praise. He is your God, who has done for you these great and terrifying things that your eyes have seen” (ESV). This is referring to what the Israelites have seen during the exodus, but that even pales in comparison to what John has described what his eyes have seen.

encourages us to “Sing to the LORD; praise the LORD! For he has delivered the life of the needy from the hand of evildoers” (ESV).

In John, Jesus is talking to the woman at the well, and in verse 21, Jesus told her, “Believe me, woman, an hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know, because salvation is from the Jews. 23 But an hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth.[g] Yes, the Father wants such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and in truth.”

25 The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

26 Jesus told her, “I, the one speaking to you, am he.”

Christ Connection: Here Jesus tells an outsider that he is the messiah and he has come to bring everyone who believes (the true worshippers) into worship to the Father. This is what Jesus arrival in Jerusalem sets up. This is what His death on the cross and resurrection from the grave provides for us. It allows us who repent and believe the opportunity to know where we are spending our eternity and how, in some part we will spend it.

Transition: John uses visual imagery not only to describe people, but also objects in the room.

II. And The Sights You will See

Explanation: John draws the reader’s or hearer’s attention to the throne first, in verse 2. John says he was in the spirit and Behold a throne was standing in heaven. which is in the center of the room and is really at the center of the book. Because from this throne God makes all the decisions.

A. Thrones Represent the majesty and authority of a King. Whenever you watch movies that have kings there is almost always a scene of the king sitting on his throne. Many times, the throne is used as a synonym for position of king itself. People say they are claiming the throne. Wars have been fought over thrones because many times there was no clear claim to the title of King or queen and so it had to be taken by force.

Satan wanted to take over the throne from God or at least be in charge of all the angels not just a third of them. We try to over throw God when we want to do what we want instead of doing what God wants us to do.

B. Surrounding the throne is rainbow, Lightning, and floor that is as a sea of glass like crystal.

These accounts line up with Old Testament accounts from and which says Something like a throne with the appearance of lapis lazuli was above the expanse over their heads. On the throne, high above, was someone who looked like a human. 27 From what seemed to be his waist up, I saw a gleam like amber, with what looked like fire enclosing it all around. From what seemed to be his waist down, I also saw what looked like fire. There was a brilliant light all around him. 28 The appearance of the brilliant light all around was like that of a rainbow in a cloud on a rainy day. This was the appearance of the likeness of the Lord’s glory. When I saw it, I fell facedown and heard a voice speaking. (CSB).

John gives us a description that is so vivid because seeing the sea especially when the sun is shining on it and how it looks is awe inspiring.

C. Seven Fires

These seven fires or torches represent the Holy Spirit, so in the scene we have God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, the Trinity all in the same room. This is partially illustrative in a sense to show us that they are three distinct persons, but they are all of the same essence, they are all God.

Application point: You can rest knowing that God is on the Judgment Seat

We do not have to act like Satan and be unhappy with what God has given us and we are not qualified to make the Judgments and Decisions that God has to make.

It is easy to criticize our leaders when we are in our living room. It is quite another thing to have to actually process the information and decide what to do with it. Whose life is affected? Who loses or who wins? who lives or who dies? When does all of this occur?

We can rest easy because God is control, he is decision those things.

Oswald chambers, who is a theologian and is perhaps most well-known for his devotional book called My Utmost for His Highest says this in the entry for August 12, titled A Theology of resting in God.

“When we are afraid, the least we can do is pray to God. But our Lord has a right to expect that those who name His name have an underlying confidence in Him. God expects His children to be so confident in Him that in any crisis they are the ones who are reliable. Yet our trust is only in God up to a certain point, then we turn back to the elementary panic-stricken prayers of those people who do not even know God. We come to our wits’ end, showing that we don’t have even the slightest amount of confidence in Him or in His sovereign control of the world. To us He seems to be asleep, and we can see nothing but giant, breaking waves on the sea ahead of us.

There are times when there is no storm or crisis in our lives, and we do all that is humanly possible. But it is when a crisis arises that we instantly reveal upon whom we rely. If we have been learning to worship God and to place our trust in Him, the crisis will reveal that we can go to the point of breaking, yet without breaking our confidence in Him.

We have been talking quite a lot about sanctification, but what will be the result in our lives? It will be expressed in our lives as a peaceful resting in God, which means a total oneness with Him. And this oneness will make us not only blameless in His sight, but also a profound joy to Him.[3]

Christ Connection: Jesus died to end the war between God and Man. He came to give us peace and we can confidently rest in him.

Transition: Not only does John describes these awesome people and things of what he sees, but he also tells us what he hears when he is in heaven.

III. And The Sounds You will Hear

Illustration: If you are a baseball fan, you know that there is something about the sounds at a baseball game. The crowd, the music of your favorite player coming up to bat, the oohs and ahhs of the crowd when a good play is made or the best sound is when a player hits the ball and you know from the crack of the bat that it is going to be a homerun.

Explanation:

A. Trumpets

In verse 1, after seeing the door to heaven open John says the first voice which I had heard like the sound of a trumpet speaking. The first three chapters describe John listening to Jesus as He describes the letters to the seven churches which we covered the summer before last. John explains that the same voice is speaking to John and leading him through the door to heaven. John describes Jesus voice the same way in . These are not the soft jazz Louis Armstrong or Chet Baker trumpets, but these are probably the announcing the kingdom or the king kind.

B. Thunder

In movies, we add music to the scenes to add to the suspense or the feeling of romance or excitement and so I think the thunder that accompanies the lightning adds to the drama and power that we see from the throne. God is controlling the lighting and thunder.

C. Worship

But with all of the noise going on the thing that John mentions twice is the sound of Worship from the Four beings and also the 24 Elders They are both singing God’s praises

He is worthy, he is the ultimately holy being. Holy, Holy, Holy is not there three times because it fits the chant, but because the phrase is essentially a superlative, like saying he is the best. He is the most holy.

The elders sing worthy art thou, our Lord and our God. they are recognizing God created everything

Application: We worship God because we recognize who He is

We should worship God Reverently; we understand our own finiteness and His infinite power and we should be in awe of that. The Elders say that he created all things and because of His will they existed and were created. That is pretty amazing and humbling. When I was a kid I got pretty excited because I put together a model plane because I did it. But I didn’t make the actual plane parts, I just glued everything together. God however made the parts out of scratch and he Holds them together.

Christ Connection: Jesus worshipped God the Father by being obedient to Him during his time on earth. Jesu was made a little lower than the angels because of the sufferings of death crowned with Glory and honor by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

We are below God but we are higher than the angels. We are God’s greatest creation, but we must understand there is one greater, and that is the creator God who made everything and he deserves and commands our worship.

Transition: We see the sights and hear the sounds of heaven described for us as best as John can so we can understand in our earthly minds.

Conclusion: But, we will not grasp the full gravity of our new home until we get there and we can worship god along with our family and also the greatest of the saints, that have gone before us, like Peter, Paul, the other disciples, Charles Spurgeon , Jonathan Edwards, and your grandparents and parents who have gone to glory ahead of us.

Until then we can rest that God is on the throne now and he will be forever. We can learn to worship him and be in awe of his power and how he orchestrates His world and how he includes us in his kingdom. The King has indeed arrived because Jesus’ death also sent him back to sit at the right hand of His father.

Action: If you go on vacation to Disney or Yosemite, how do you describe it to people. Do you say, “oh yeah, we say Mickey and rode a few rides, or we saw some trees and a big rock” or do you describe the sounds of the park how vast the landscape was or even how crowded Disney was with all the different people ad the smells of the food?

Likewise, how do you describe being a Christian to someone? Do you just say, I am a believer or do you say I follow God and this is how it has changed my life? Jonathan Edwards described heaven as a world of Love and that is one of the most encouraging messages we can tell people about God and his kingdom, because one day heaven will come to Earth.

[1] Paige Patterson, Revelation, ed. E. Ray Clendenen, vol. 39, The New American Commentary (Nashville, TN: B&H, 2012), 150.

[2] Paige Patterson, Revelation, ed. E. Ray Clendenen, vol. 39, The New American Commentary (Nashville, TN: B&H, 2012), 151.

[3]Oswald Chambers, “The Theology of Resting In God.” Utmost for My Highest, https://utmost.org/the-theology-of-resting-in-god/