The Trip of a Lifetime
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
We have been studying Revelation for quite some time and we have just finished up going through the letters to the churches. This means that we now come to the third division in the Book.
Ya’ll remember back when I preached the first message from Revelation, I mentioned how God gives us the outline for the book in chapter 1?
19 Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter;
We have the things which thou has seen in chapter 1...
We have the things which are in chapters 2-3...
and
We have the things which shall be hereafter in chapters 4-22...
John took the trip of a lifetime here in these verses and that’s what I want to preach on today.
Look in verse 1 with me…we see:
The Door
The Door
Revelation 4:1 (KJV 1900)
1 After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven...
After this…After what?
After John received the messages to the church and wrote the messages to the churches he looked up to Heaven…John describes what he saw…He looked and what he saw got his attention!
Behold! is what he said…This word behold is a word that is used to grab the reader’s attention and gives us the idea that something wonderful, important, and insightful is about to be relayed!
Behold is an exclamation word!
John writes down what he saw - He saw a door standing open in heaven!
God allowed John to see through the heavens—to the heaven and see a door open in heaven. This reminds me that there are not many doors, many ways, or many entrances to heaven! Only through the Lord Jesus Christ can a person enter heaven.
9 I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.
10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
Lehman Strauss wrote, “A door is an opening through which one may pass from one place to another. The Bible tells us that there is only one door into I leaven … (Jesus) only is the way of access to God. As sinners alienated from God we have no access except through Christ.”
The Lord showed John this door open in heaven for a reason—and we will learn that John would take a trip of a lifetime. John looked at the door and it was standing open in heaven.
This is the fourth time the word “door” is used in Revelation.
It first appears in the letter to the church at Philadelphia where our Lord said, “I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it” (3:8). This is the open door for a gospel witness.
The second door occurs in the letter to the church at Laodicea where Christ says, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock” (3:20).
The third appearance of the word “door” is in this same verse where He says, “If any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me” (3:20). Here we see the closed door of the human heart. While the door remains open for gospel preaching and Bible teaching, Christ stands at the door of the individual’s heart, knocking and asking to be admitted. Many continue refusing to let Him enter, while a few, who recognize their lost and sinful state, receive Him.
But at the close of this present age, when the last soul has received Him, He will open the door into Heaven and call His own to their heavenly home which He has been preparing for them that love Him.
Look at the next part of the verse with me…We see:
The Call
The Call
Revelation 4:1 (KJV 1900)
1 ...and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.
John tells us that he listened to direction from heaven—this direction to him was given by the Lord Jesus Christ.
John tells us that it was from the first voice which he heard and it was like a trumpet speaking to him.
The voice that John heard was like a trumpet—that means that it was loud, clear, not distorted, or misunderstood!
John heard this voice before and he would hear this voice again!
Before I get into this, I just want to say this verse reminds me of a couple verses in the Bible:
52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
Let me just say that there is no way for an earthly man to go to heaven on his own—the Lord Jesus summoned John and He enabled John to go up there.
Man has developed rockets and missiles and shuttles and space crafts.
Man can shoot rockets into the heavens, put a man on the moon—but we cannot put a man in heaven!
Only the Lord Jesus can open the door of heaven and summon His servants to “come up hither.” John was going to get a new perspective of things—he was physically a prisoner on the Island of Patmos, but he would now be summoned to heaven.
John heard the call from the Lord. Hallelujah! One day we are going to hear the voice of the Son of God and up from the grave we will rise and we will meet the Lord up there in the air and we will be carried to heaven where we will forever be with the Lord!
John didn’t have to wonder Who it was that was calling him and he didn’t have to wonder why he was being called.
John would be taken to heaven to be shown the things that “must be hereafter.”
“Must” tells us of the certainty of the things revealed taking place. This magnifies the Sovereignty of the Lord Jesus—He knows everything. He reveals prophetic things to John—things that would take place.
The Lord Jesus is about to reveal to John the worship in heaven and the tribulation on earth.
“After this” speaks of his revelation to the seven churches.
The word “church” is not found throughout the rest of the Book of Revelation—in chapters 21–22 the church is referred to as the “Bride.”
Many Bible scholars believe this refers to after the “Church Age” is over. I believe that the Tribulation depicted in chapters 6 through 19 takes place when the Church Age is over.
The Ascending
The Ascending
2 And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne.
John tells us of the swiftness of his journey. The Lord called for John and immediately John was in the Spirit.
It was the Spirit of the Lord that conveyed John to glory!
This ought to tell us something right here…There’s no time to get ready when you hear this call…It happens so fast, you better be prepared for it in advance! We must make sure we are ready for the return of Christ NOW!
44 Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.
It’ll be too late to prepare when the call comes! You better make preparations today!
Sam Gordon said, “John was not transported into some mystical fantasy land nor was he taken into a daydream world of make-believe, this was no mind expanding hallucinatory vision; for John, this was real, he was taken where he had never been before, he was transported spiritually into the reality of heaven.”
John heard the word of the Lord and John was taken up by the Lord into heaven.
Adrian Rogers said, “That door was open in heaven and John was called out and caught up in the Spirit immediately, just as the church will be before God’s wrath begins to be poured out on this old sin-soaked, hell-bound world.”
John saw a throne in heaven—the throne of God is prominent in the word of God. It is here and in many other places in this book.
Warren Wiersbe wrote, “The key word in this chapter is throne; it is used fourteen times. In fact, this is a key word in the entire book, appearing forty-six times. No matter what may happen on earth, God is on His throne and is in complete control.”
This throne was what first impressed John, and it is the centerpiece of this vision. John was fixated on the occupied throne, and everything else is described in relation to this throne.
The bottom line of atheism or materialism is that there is no throne, there is no seat of authority or power that the entire universe must answer to.
The bottom line of humanism is that there is a throne, but man sits upon it.
Man can’t live without the concept of a throne, a supreme ruler.
The throne is not empty. There is some One who sits on this great heavenly throne. The throne is a powerful declaration of not merely God’s presence, but of His sovereign, rightful reign, and His prerogative to judge.
We can’t think rightly about much of anything until we settle in our mind that there is an occupied throne in heaven, and the God of the Bible rules from the throne. Morgan writes, “While there may be many differing interpretations, the fundamental truths are self-evident. At the center of everything is an occupied throne.”
Conclusion
Conclusion
We will continue looking at the throne room tonight, but let me close by saying there are some exciting days ahead for the church! We are about to leave this world behind forever.
John took the trip of a lifetime, one day every saved child of God will be called up and take that trip also. Will you be in that number? When the Lord comes and raptures His church, will you go with Him, or will you be left behind to face the Tribulation?
If you are saved, then praise His name, there is a great day coming. If you are not saved, then come to Jesus today, while there is hope, and be saved before it is too late.
What has the Lord said to your heart today? If there are needs, then you come as He calls.