The Book of Revelation: Behold Him Daily

Speaker: Gary Peters

Passage: Revelation 4:1-11

BEHOLDING BRINGS REVELATION

Father, do what You want to do in our hearts. I believe I’ve heard from You. I believe that You have something for us. I pray that I would deliver it with humility and brokenness, and yet with the power of the Holy Spirit. Holy One, You’re the guide, the teacher, the One that directs us in the truth. We look to You when we pray. In Jesus’ name, amen.

If you were with us last Sunday, Pastor Greg shared probably one of the most foundational messages of Vintage. I’d encourage you to go back and listen to it. Even if you were here, listen to it a couple more times. He taught about the worship experience in Heaven as described in Revelation 4 and 5 and how that relates to and should affect our corporate worship.

Today, I want to share with you the importance of private time, but still in the context of Revelation 4 and 5. Chapter 5, verses 4 and 5, says this, “Then I began to weep greatly because there was no one found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. And one of the elders said…” It’s obvious you’re not from here because we don’t do that in Heaven. We fix our eyes and behold the Lamb.

“Behold” means to be arrested or to be gripped by something where it changes our direction. John went from weeping to glorifying, and that’s really what I want to talk about this morning.

Revelation chapter 4: “Then as I looked, I saw a door standing open in Heaven, and the same voice I had heard before spoke to me like a trumpet blast. The voice said, ‘Come up here, and I will show you what must happen after this’. And instantly I was in the Spirit, and I saw a throne in Heaven and someone sitting on it. The one sitting on the throne was as brilliant as gemstones…”

We’ve read this four or five times over the last four or five weeks. The key is that we see a picture of what takes place in Heaven. Today, I want to share with you what I noticed, because in the Old Testament there’s three descriptions of essentially what we see in Revelation 4 and 5.

Whenever you see the Heavens part, there’s this Revelation type of thing. What should that say to us? That’s what is going on in Heaven even at this moment. If God were to part the heavens and we saw Jesus, we wouldn’t slap Him on the back and say, Hey, bro, how’s it going? A casual Christianity. No, we would be on our faces before Him. And then when He sees that response, He always taps people on the shoulder and says, Get up, because He wants us to understand that.

A REVELATION TO MOSES

There are three Old Testament descriptions similar to John’s experience in Revelation where the activity of Heaven is revealed.

The first is found with Moses in Exodus 19 and 20. In chapter 19, verses 16 through 19: “On the morning of the third day, thunder roared and lightning flashed, and a dense cloud came down on the mountain. There was a long, loud blast from a ram’s horn, and all the people trembled. Moses led them out from the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. All of Mount Sinai was covered with smoke because the Lord had descended on it in the form of a fire. The smoke billowed into the sky like smoke from a brick kiln, and the whole mountain shook violently. As the blast of the ram’s horn grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God thundered His reply.”

As I was laying in bed at about three o’clock, rehearsing my notes in my mind, I felt like the Lord wanted me to remind you of this. Some of you are in a predicament right now. You hate your job, you don’t like your marriage, maybe something is falling apart, you’re complaining—and God is thundering at you right now. He’s thundering at you. He’s saying, It’s time to seek My face. It’s time to turn your direction. It’s time to be arrested in your heart and get your eyes on Me. Off of your job, off of your marriage, off of your circumstances. Until that happens, there’s not going to be any change. It may get worse; be encouraged. Let God thunder.

He wants to speak in a still, small voice, but sometimes He has to thunder. Does anybody here besides me ever have God thunder at them? I’m a little dense sometimes. It’s like, God, please thunder.

And then, in verse 20 it says, “The Lord came down on top of Mount Sinai and the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain. So Moses climbed the mountain.”

A REVELATION TO ISAIAH AND EZEKIEL

Isaiah chapter 6 says, “It was in the year that King Uzziah died that I saw the Lord. He was sitting on a lofty throne, and the train of His robe filled the Temple”. Then it describes the same thing we see in Revelation 4: these creatures covered with eyes, wings all about, flying around, and there’s smoke, quaking, the threshold shaking. Do you see a pattern here?

Ezekiel chapter 1 says, “On July 31 of my thirtieth year, while I was with the Judean exiles beside the Kebar River in Babylon, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God”. I encourage you to read Exodus 19 and 20 this week, read Isaiah 6, read Ezekiel chapters 1 through 3, because they’re all going to describe this and I don’t have time to get into all of it.

Then, Ezekiel sees the same thing as Isaiah. In verse 9, it says, “The wings of each living being touched the wings of the beings beside it. Each one moved straight forward in any direction without turning around.” I don’t know how that happens, but the idea is that the same thing we saw in previous books happens again.

Skip over to verses 26 and 27 of Ezekiel: “Above this surface was something that looked like a throne made of blue lapis lazuli. And on this throne high above was a figure whose appearance resembled a man. From what appeared to be His waist up, He looked like gleaming amber, flickering like a fire. And from His waist down, He looked like a burning flame, shining with splendor. All around Him was a glowing halo, like a rainbow…”

Ezekiel sees what John did centuries before him. Have you seen God in His glory? Have you fallen face down sometimes before Him? That’s what’s happening here.

“All around Him was a glowing halo, like a rainbow shining in the clouds on a rainy day. This is what the glory of the Lord looked like to me. When I saw it, I fell face down on the ground, and I heard someone’s voice speaking to me.”

You notice what he does, Church? He falls face down in the presence of the Lord’s glory. Do you want to know what’s going to happen in 2024? Doesn’t matter; you need to be face down. Get your eyes off of the internet; get your eyes off the news. Fall face down, and then let Him pick you up and put your eyes back on Him.

HOW WE RESPOND TO REVELATION

We see aspects of Revelation 4 and 5 in all three of these descriptions. Men trying to describe in their native language what they were seeing of the supernatural. If the heavens parted right now and we were taken up and we saw what John saw, each one of us in this room would have a similar experience.

We’re going to get into the seven seals in chapter 6, but if you go to the seven seals without beholding Him, you’re in trouble. If you jump to the dragon and the horns and the beasts and all those things that are going to happen in Revelation, you’re in trouble. Everybody wants to look at that. Everybody wants that explained to them.

Jesus said that before we understand those things, we need to come up and behold Him. That’s what He wants us to understand. We get it all backward, so concerned about rapture and tribulation. How long is the tribulation? Are we going to be here? Are we not going to be there? What’s going on? By the way, rapture is not even mentioned in the book of Revelation.

John knew the Old Testament descriptions of the Heavenly throne room. He studied; he was a good Hebrew boy. He was a scholar. He knew Isaiah’s revelation, he knew Moses’s revelation, and he knew Ezekiel’s too. So when he sees the heavens parted he’s finally able to put words to what’s been described by somebody else because he has experienced himself.

I don’t want to live on somebody else’s revelation. By the way, the minute you think you have a brand new one, you find somebody who got it in the 1700s or the 500s. There’s nothing new under the sun. Don’t sensationalize something you’ve had. I see the things that I only read about, pastor Dustin said to me and the study team. I see the things that I only read about or heard about before, and now I’m on my face because that’s true worship.

Smoke, lightning, thunder, trumpet blast, rushing water, earth and temple shaking, angelic beings flying around—almost the exact same description of activity mentioned in the Old Testament. And the same song was sung in Isaiah that we see sung in Revelation 4 and 5: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.” You’ve heard me say this a million times, but the word “holiness” means unlike anyone else.

Worship is this: we see God in all of His glory. Heaven is not going to be boring. The Creator, the one that created everything and still is; the one that said, Let there be light, and it didn’t stop—that’s the one we’re going to be enthralled with. And when we see another glimpse of Him, we’re going to fall on our face, cast our crowns, and say, There’s none like You, there’s none like You. God, you’re the only one who wasn’t created. There’s none like you. That’s what we’re going to be saying, and that’s what holiness means.

You see, the call to come up, the call to experience God differently, the call to receive God’s law that Moses got, the call to be sent; all of this is a call to behold Him. It’s interesting to me that Moses was in the wilderness when he got the call. Isaiah had just experienced the death of his cousin, who was the king. John and Ezekiel are in exile.

If you don’t get anything else, listen to this. I really believe it. I think we can deduce that God is revealed in new and different ways, and a revelatory way in our life, when our lives are upended, even in chaos, and even in desperation. All four of these revelations of coming up and beholding Him were in times of chaos, exile, wilderness, and death. Be encouraged!

LETTING GO OF THE WORLD TO TRULY SEE GOD

The other thing we see in Ezekiel and we see in John is that there’s a door in heaven. There’s a threshold that Ezekiel sees that we have to cross, and there’s a mountain to climb for Moses. That’s our daily encounter. That’s the outcome of worship. It comes from seeing the God that I only heard or read about and now I see and experience Him.

Doors that are open always bring adversaries to walk through them. Paul says there’s a wide door of effective service to the Corinthian church, but there are many adversaries. Some of us freak out about that. If there was a door why would there be an adversary? Because God’s wanting us to walk through the door, to walk over the threshold, to come up to the mountain. That’s what God wants us to understand.

There’s always a door to step into, a threshold to step over, and a mountain to climb. What’s sad is many times in the church, we’re not willing to do any of it. And then we complain to God about our lot in life. I’m not saying if you come up, everything’s gonna be rosy. I’m just saying, what are you going to lose? Do you like what you’re living in now? Do you like being exiled? Do you like experiencing death? Do you like seeing smoke and fire?

A call to come up is a call to see God in an otherworldly way. Pastor Greg said this: To see Him in an otherworldly way, we have to be willing to let go of what we see in the world. Do me a favor, especially as we head into the Fall. Turn off the internet and the news. Get your information from what this is. Spend time with Him.

The challenge to behold Him is to stop weeping. Behold, the Lion from the tribe of Judah. Stop weeping, stop freaking out. I am so tired of somebody coming up to me on a Sunday morning or a Wednesday night and saying, Pastor, have you heard the latest? Yeah, Jesus Christ is Lord of all the universe. That’s the latest. Not to bury our head in the sand, but come on, Church. We’re distracted.

OUR PERSPECTIVE AND DISTANCE TO GOD MATTERS

Let’s go back to Israel’s call in chapter 20 of Exodus: “When the people heard the thunder and the loud blast of the ram’s horn, and when they saw the flashes of lightning and the smoke billowing from the mountain, they stood at a distance, trembling with fear.”

This is where Israel changed direction, where they changed course. Jesus came to get us to understand, once again, My sheep hear My voice. My sheep hear My voice.

So they stood at a distance, and they said to Moses, You go speak to God and tell us what He says. Suddenly, Israel shifts. The history of the world shifts. God says, Okay, is that what you want?

As a pastor, I’ve been doing this since 1980. That’s a long time. People say, Pastor, I’m not being fed. I’m saying you’re not eating. I’m not supposed to feed you. Milk is something that’s passed through the body to nurse the child. When you say you want milk, you’re saying you want something from me. If you want meat, you need to eat it yourself.

Continuing on in chapter 20: “‘Don’t be afraid,’ Moses answered them, ‘for God has come in this way to test you, and so that your fear of Him will keep you from sinning!’ As the people stood in the distance, Moses approached the dark cloud where God was.”

The same event from a distance was fire, brimstone, and smoke; it looked like the whole mountain was on fire. From a distance, that is what it looked like. But when Moses went up, what did he see? He was enveloped in the cloud. He was so filled with the glory of God that when he came down the mountain, his face had to be veiled because he was shining so much.

What is the thing that God wants to call us into? If you stay at a distance it’s like, Oh, man, it’s terrible. This is terrible. It’s never going to change. We’re doomed. We’re all going to die. That’s what the Israelites said. The question is, what is our response going to be?

Listen, God is telling Vintage, Come up and behold Me. Come up and have your thoughts arrested in your mind. Come up and have your attitude adjusted. Come up and see Me in ways you’ve never seen Me before. That’s why I’m thrilled about what’s going to happen. I’m thrilled because it’s not a political party. It’s not a political system. It’s Jesus. Church, be prepared to be disappointed if your eyes aren’t on Him. It’s Jesus. That’s the only thing we need. We need Jesus. We need to behold Him. We need to come up and see Him.

I want to give you a cautionary tale of what happens when we don’t. What I’ve witnessed in my own history, what I’ve witnessed in the people of God, what I understand through Scripture—people watching God instead of people experiencing God. He didn’t come to just save you; He came to make you an effective minister on this planet, and then you get the bonus of being silly with the Holy Spirit, and you know you’re going to heaven. Heaven is the bonus. Eternal life starts the minute you are born. You’re going to spend eternity somewhere. Where is the question.

THREE BENEFITS OF BEHOLDING HIM DAILY

So what are the results of a personal time of beholding and a willingness to come up?

Number one: we mature with a growing perspective and understanding of God’s nature, character, and attributes. I’ve always been one to see the glass half full. See, when we behold Him, we understand His nature. So when things happen in my life that are contrary to His nature, I don’t reject them. I just look to Him and glorify Him because His nature is different. His attributes are different. I know all the time God is loving; I don’t have to question that. I may not understand why things have happened to me, but I understand who He is. The thunder, fire, lightning, and quaking were seen by Israel, but it was the same cloud that enveloped Moses.

The commandments that came down with Moses are nothing more than a list of rules and do’s and don’ts that many of us were raised in. But when we behold Him, we find out His commandments are pure and righteous altogether. They keep me from sinning. They keep me in the parameters of the river of His flow. His commandments are the river bank. How many of you know having the “thou shalt nots” makes society a whole lot better, too? We don’t have to have them plastered everywhere; we have to have them written in our hearts. We have to have this understanding of who He is, His nature and His character.

Number two: we are able to correctly interpret the circumstances of our lives. You’re exiled? Sit by the river bank. By the way, the Israelites were by the river bank outside the city because Jewish sacrifice had to have flowing water. They probably camped there all the time. And while they’re camping they’re probably sacrificing, some thirteen years into it. How many of us are like, I’ve been at this dark night of the soul, and it’s been a month. I’m not saying your dark night of the soul cannot be a month; I’m just saying it could also be much longer.

When I behold Him, I can handle whatever life brings me because my foundation is on the character and nature of God and not my present difficulties. David waited thirteen years to be king over Judah and another seven years to be king over all of Israel. Paul was in the desert for anywhere from three to fifteen years. Moses was in the desert for forty years. Ezekiel gets his vision after thirteen years. How many see a pattern here? It’s a lifetime of knowing who He is. Do we want to impact society? Our ability to affect culture directly depends on our willingness to Come up here and behold Him.

Number three: we understand the principle of holy exchange. We seek God, we receive God. We don’t seek God; we experience idolatry. The Israelite people didn’t go up because they were afraid of God; it was because they had something in their hearts.

It amazes me that they took the jewelry that was ransomed for them by the Egyptians. Remember when they left Egypt, they were given the jewelry that was going to be for the utensils in the Tabernacle? They give those to Aaron, and he says, As for this Moses, we don’t know what happened to him. Nice guy. Pastor Greg, I hope we don’t have staff like that. As for this Gregory, we don’t know where he’s at so we’re going to sacrifice to something else. As for this Gary, who’s he?

So they took their earrings and their jewelry and made a golden calf. Then they said, Behold the one who delivered you from Egypt. It blows me away. Then we see Jeroboam when the kingdoms are divided after Solomon; he not only makes one golden calf but two. Guess what he says? Behold the God that delivered you from Egypt. See, there’s nothing new under the sun. It’s just recycled garbage.

We become like what we worship. The heavenly exchange is this: I seek God, and I become more like Him. I’m not talking about salvation. I’m talking about effectiveness. I’m talking about peace in life. I’m talking about doing things for God. It’s not by works that I’m saved, but I want to tell you this: I have to cultivate relationship. I have to “dwell in the land,” as Psalms 37 says. To delight myself in the Lord. To cultivate.

Jot down and read Jeremiah 2:4-13. “This is what the Lord says: ‘What did your ancestors find wrong with me that led them to stray so far from me? They worshiped worthless idols, only to become worthless themselves”. In chapter 2 of Jonah, when he is in the belly of the whale, he says, Those that cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace of God that could be theirs.

A PARTING CHALLENGE

I want to give you a challenge. Tomorrow’s the first of July. Take five Psalms a day, and on one of the days, take Psalm 119. So five for twenty-nine days, four for one day, and Psalm 119 for one day. You’ll get through the book, is what I’m saying. And on the fourth day, which will be July 4th, part of the Scripture you’ll be reading is Psalm 18, which says, “I love you, Lord; You are my strength…my rock, my fortress, and my Savior; my God is my rock, in whom I find protection”.

I take how God describes himself, and in that time that I’m meditating on the Psalms, I speak back. God, You are my strength, my rock, and my fortress. Twice, it says You’re my savior. You’re my God, my protection, my shield, and my place of safety. So I can call upon the Lord, who is worthy of my praise.

Let’s get our eyes off of other things and back on Him. Just take the month of July and write down every place where God describes His character or if there’s an attribute of who He is, and meditate on those things. Behold Him. It’ll change who you are. It may not change your circumstance, but it’ll change who He is in your sight. And when that happens, life’s a whole lot better.

Father, thank You for Your Word. God, thank You for the call. God, if there’s a call in Scripture, we’re always able to fulfill it by obeying and walking in Your grace. So, God, let us hear the call to come up. Let us know; here’s the call to these things that must take place. Let us hear, Behold the Lion from the tribe of Judah who is worthy to break the seals. God, get our eyes off of other things and back on you. I pray in Jesus’ name, amen.