Speaker: Dustin Scott

Passage: Revelation 4:1-11

PREPARING FOR REVELATION CHAPTER FOUR

A part of me thinks this Memorial Day weekend, we should skip teaching, pull out the coolers, pull out the charcoal grills, and start partying. Now, some of you are like, That’s kind of the way the early church did it. It’d be kind of fun to do church that way at some time. Well, we’re going to be having a different kind of party this morning. Hopefully, it’s a good one.

How many of you are excited for Chapter Four of Revelation? How many of you are a little properly terrified for chapter four? I am. Before we dive into chapter four, and I know this seems like an odd place to start, how many of you are musicians? How many of you play piano, guitar, or drums?

Do you remember when you first started playing? Maybe you were listening to the radio and heard this awesome Led Zeppelin song where John Bonham is going to town on the drums, and you were like, Ah, I’m going to get drum lessons. I’m going to learn how to play this. But then you go to your first drum lesson, and they make you play rudimentary stuff. You’re like, What on Earth did I sign up for? Yet, over the course of time and over lots of practice, you suddenly realize you’re able to play these beautiful and intricate songs.

Well, we’re entering into chapter four of Revelation, and this chapter is complex. It’s full of this seemingly strange and bizarre imagery and filled with Old Testament pictures, images, and references. As we go through it this morning, think of it as a bit like the rudiments of learning an instrument.

It’s going to seem like, Man, we’re traversing through a lot of material. This seems like we’re jumping around a lot of places. But I think if we do this properly, we’re going to be able to step into the rest of the book and suddenly realize Revelation is a lot more uplifting, applicable, and practical to the life of the church than we ever thought.

I want us to narrow our focus to four primary themes within the text.

1. The first one I want to look at, as we look at St. John’s vision, is what perspective does St. John have in this vision? How does Heaven adjust St. John’s perspective?
2. The next theme I want to look at within the text is access to Heaven. How did St. John gain access to this powerful, transcendent, heavenly throne room?
3. If we get to it this week, I want to talk about the ordering of Heaven. Why is the throne room of our King structured in this particular way within Revelation 4?
4. And last but not least, is the worship in Heaven. This is the part I really want to talk about. But I’m not sure we’ll get there today. What does worship look like in Heaven? How does that inform the way we should worship here on Earth? 

REVELATION 4: 1-11

As we embark into chapter four, I’ll be reading from the New Revised Standard Version this morning and starting in verse one. We’re going to go the whole way through the chapter to verse 11. It reads:

“After this I looked, and there in Heaven a door stood open! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, ‘Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.’ At once I was in the Spirit, and there in Heaven stood a throne, with one seated on the throne! And the one seated there looks like Jasper and Carnelian, and around the throne is a rainbow that looks like an emerald. Around the throne are twenty-four thrones, and seated on the twenty-four thrones are twenty-four elders, dressed in white robes, with golden crowns on their heads. Coming from the throne are flashes of lightning and rumblings and peals of thunder, and in front of the throne burn seven flaming torches, which are the seven spirits of God, and in front of the throne there is something like a sea of glass, like crystal. Around the throne, and on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and back: the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with a face like a human, and the fourth living creature like a flying eagle. And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and inside. Day and night without ceasing they sing, ‘Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God the Almighty, who was and is and is to come’. And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to the one who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall before the one who is seated on the throne and worship the one who lives forever and ever; they cast their crowns before the throne, singing, ‘You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things, and by Your will they existed and were created.'”

Let’s pray.

Holy Spirit, this is such a spectacular, gorgeous passage of Scripture. There’s so much beauty here. There’s so much truth here. There’s so much mystery here. So, Lord, as we embark in chapter four, would Your Spirit lead us? We keep that warning in mind, which comes at the end of this book, about anyone who adds or takes away. So, Lord, let us not add or take away this morning but let us hear Your truth. Let us be guided this morning, and teach us how we are to live as Your people in this world. Lead us, Holy Spirit, the only wise teacher. We ask this in Your name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

THE THEME OF “HEAVENLY PERSPECTIVE”

I want to begin with the first theme: heavenly perspective. In verse one of this chapter, we find the Lord issuing a command, an exhortation to John, saying, John, come up here. There’s a phrase used twice within this verse, which is rendered in English as after these things. It’s important because theologians, scholars, and speculators have built entire systems of eschatology based on this simple phrase, which in Greek is “meta tauta.”

As we look at this twice-used phrase within this passage, something we’ll shortly realize is that we’ve encountered this transitional phrase before.

We encountered it in Revelation chapter one, verse nineteen. Remember, St. John is seeing this vision of the glorified Jesus: one with hair as white as wool, one with eyes like flames of fire, one who looks like burnished bronze. He sees the glorified Jesus before him, then suddenly his perspective is shifted, and the Lord begins to reveal to him these specific blessings and rebukes to the seven churches. This phrase was used as a transition between visions. 

So as we look at this phrase within verse one of chapter four, what we find is that this familiar transitional phrase is here. But I want to ask the question: what precisely is being transitioned? 

Now, there’s a great principle, which is to allow Scripture to interpret Scripture. As I was studying this passage further, I came across this emerald rainbow being circled around the throne of God. I was looking at commentaries, and there are all kinds of speculation and theories, like maybe this is a sign of God’s mercy and the story of Noah, or maybe this is a testament to creation, being that this rainbow is emerald or green.

But you know what I found? I was in Ezekiel chapter one, where so much of this vision is taken from, and Ezekiel gives us the answer. As he sees the throne of God, it says he saw a rainbow wrapped around it. What was the rainbow? The glory of God. This suddenly wipes out everything these commentaries said because Scripture speaks to Scripture.

TRANSITIONING FROM AN EARTHLY TO A HEAVENLY PERSPECTIVE

So, if we’re going to allow Scripture to inform our understanding of this transitional phrase, we need to go back to verse one and see what’s being transitioned. I think it’s interesting that St. John is not being taken forward in time. What does Jesus command him to do? Go upward. This is an upward transition, not a forward one.

As St. John is being taken upward, he’s being drawn away from the present problems, the difficulties, and the sufferings of the seven churches and towards Heavenly reality. Simply stated, he’s shifting his perspective. He’s seeing Heaven now rather than Earth.

I want to remind us here that St. John is still speaking for the Lord to the seven churches: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. If you look at a map, what you’ll find is that the cities are listed out in precisely the same order that you, as a traveler, would have visited them if you were going from west to east on a Roman highway. So, this book is written to these churches.

If we go back to Revelation chapter one, verse 11, it says, Write in a book what you see and send it to the seven churches. Why is that important for us? I want us to go elsewhere in Scripture, to St. Paul and his letters to the Corinthians. I want to remind you that St. Paul is an apocalyptic writer, too. He’s going to write about getting vortexed to the third heaven in 2nd Corinthians. That seems pretty apocalyptic, right?

In 1st Corinthians 15, Paul is going to tell us, in elaborate detail, precisely how we’re to resurrect from the dead, and about the new creation, and how God is going to become all in all. But we would never assume if we were reading 1st or 2nd Corinthians that somewhere in these letters, Paul stopped talking to the church at Corinth. So why do so many people do that with the book of Revelation?

I want to remind us that while the book of Revelation was written for us—it’s going to blend together past, present, and future in this beautiful tapestry—Revelation was not written to us; it was written to the seven churches. These were real people and real places with real problems. As we embark into chapter four, we cannot fall for the trap of imagining that Jesus is no longer talking to the seven churches now and He’s speaking to something else. This is still speaking to them.

However, because the whole of Revelation is Scripture, because it contains infallible truth, because it blends all times of human and earthly history together, and because it’s meant to be studied by every generation, we understand that this book is a book also meant for us. And not only that, but if we go back to Revelation 1:3, it says that it’s holistically meant to be read, heard, and obeyed by the Church.

If we go even further, it says its blessing is intended for every believer. It’s relevant, and it’s practical. How many of you have ever thought Revelation is practical? Most of us are like, it’s the least practical book in the Bible, but that’s not true, and we’re going to find out why this morning.

WHAT ISSUES ARE CLOUDING OUR PERSPECTIVE?

So, let’s do a bit of a review. Someone told me recently that we’ve been hanging out in the seven churches for eight months. Has it really been that long? That’s crazy. We’ve been hanging out here for a while. Within these first few chapters, we’ve found Jesus meticulously addressing the problems, the sufferings, and the sins within the seven churches. But right now, in chapter four, Jesus is moving St. John’s perspective away from the former rebukes and messes of the seven churches and towards the Heavenly throne room.

I think it’s worth doing a review of what messes were plaguing the seven churches. We found issues of sin, issues of suffering, we found discontentment and doubt and fractured community and broken relationships and persecution. How many of you would say you’ve dealt with at least one of those issues this week? Most of us.

Yet we find St. John’s perspective being shifted at the beginning of chapter four. I want to ask, what enabled this shifted perspective? Well, if we go back to verse one, we find that not only did the Lord tell John, Hey, come up here, it also says a door opened in Heaven. A door opens because the Lord invited him up. Suddenly, St. John’s vision is a lot less strange and esoteric than we thought it was before.

Suddenly, it’s beginning to sound a lot more complimentary to when St. Paul says things like Live in the Spirit, not in the flesh. Or when he tells the Ephesians in Ephesians chapter two, Do you not realize that you are already seated in Christ in the Heavenly places? This is about a perspective shift. The Lord is telling John, Get your eyes off of what’s going on down here and get your eyes up here.

So as we embark into chapter four, as we look back at the messes of the seven churches, I would ask: what messes in our life are holding us back from the Lord’s invitation? When we looked at those churches, we saw issues of sexual immorality and idolatry. So if we got down to the brass tacks of it, what issues are holding us back from His voice?

Do we have a problem with lust? Pornography use? Sex outside of marriage? A broken view of human sexuality? Or maybe on the idolatry front, are we greedy for earthly possessions? Are we too hungry for success? Are we envious of others?

I don’t know what your particular idol is. I only know mine. But I want to ask the question: what is holding us back from Heaven’s perspective this morning? Where is our perspective deadened by personal sin or narrowed by improper focus? Because while the Lord was speaking to St. John here, I think He’s speaking through the text to us saying, Hey guys, get your eyes off this. Stop living for this and come up here.

THE THEME OF “HEAVENLY ACCESS”

So that’s the perspective theme. Next, I want to talk about Heavenly access. We’re going to find this strange, mystical title for the Lord. It’s going to occur in verse two, verse three, and verse nine, and in Greek, it’s “kathēmenos.” It means one seated. I want us to note that God the Father is not very revealed within this passage. There’s not much description of who He is and what He’s doing. We learn a lot about the throne and a lot about the thrones surrounding the throne. But we learn very little about Him in this passage. The Father is hidden upon the throne.

This could speak to a Jewish hesitation. By the way, St. John was a Jew. So were all the apostles. So was Jesus. It’s good to remember that in studying Scripture. This could speak to a Jewish hesitation to name or describe Yahweh per the third commandment in Exodus 20. But I think that’s problematic. Why? Because God is going to be revealed with clarity in chapter five through the Lamb.

Right now, in chapter four, only two attributes of God are noted. The first one is that God is seated on the throne, and the second one is that He looks like Jasper and Carnelian. Are you ready for your rudiments? To do a deep dive on what these two titles and images mean? I hope you are, because I am.

GOD AS THE ONE SEATED

If we look at this statement, “One seated”, it’s easy for a person in any culture to see sitting as a posture of rest and permanence. If you go to your friend’s house and he says, Hey, sit down and stay a while, what’s inferred is that you’re going to be around for a while, right? You’re going to be a more permanent facet of that situation. But there’s much more going on here.

Go back to the Gospels of Mark, Luke, and especially Matthew, which was written for a Jewish audience, and count the number of times where the writer’s note that Jesus sat down to teach the disciples or the crowds. It seems like the Gospel writers are quite interested in Jesus’s sitting habits. Why? Well, if you go into Jewish culture, the Judaism of the first century, and even Orthodox Judaism today, sitting is a posture of rabbinical authority and power. If you grew up as an Orthodox Jewish boy and you go to their equivalent of seminary or theological school, in Hebrew it’s called “yeshiva”, which means sitting. This is a posture of authority.

If we go to the Roman context, the Roman historian Cassius Dio is going to tell us that the first Emperor, Julius Caesar, was granted universal power in the empire by the senate of Rome. And how was this power represented within Caesar’s Palace? By a golden chair. So this is an image of power and sovereignty.

GOD AS JASPER AND SARDIUS

Let’s go to the Jasper and the Sardius, or Carnelian, mentioned in chapter four, verse three. First, I want to note that Jasper is most commonly red, though it can be other colors, and Sardius is most commonly orange. If we go to Exodus chapter 28, we find that these were the first and the last jewels upon a Levitical priest’s breastplate of judgment. And what did you need the breastplate of judgment for? Well, the high priest would go into the Holy of Holies once a year on Yom Kapoor and make a sacrifice for the people. I think it’s interesting that this is the first and the last jewel because how many times is the Lord going to be revealed as the first and the last? Interesting stuff.

Next, we find Sardius is attested to in pre-fallen creation, so this speaks to the perfection of God. And perhaps the best picture we get is if you take a red jewel and you place it next to an orange jewel, they look like the color and hue of a burning flame. This is imagery from Ezekiel chapters one and two.

But I want us to know that beyond these minor descriptions, the Father is not revealed within this passage. He remains hidden to St. John. How many of you, if you were St. John at this moment, would see the throne and go charging right up to it? Probably not. There’s thunder, there’s lightning, there’s this Exodus 19 imagery from Yahweh’s terrifying descent on Mount Sinai—none of us would go running towards the throne because the Father is hidden here. He cannot be known. He cannot be approached, and He cannot be related to except, as we’re going to find out in verse five, through the Lamb.

Who’s the Lamb? Jesus. And what we’re going to find in verse five of chapter four is that the Holy Spirit is erupting out the front of the throne of God. There are so many Trinitarian intricacies within this passage and within chapter four. Let’s take a deeper look.

IMAGES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

This image of the Holy Spirit coming out of the throne of God is taken from John seven, where the Holy Spirit is described as refreshing water flowing out of the throne of God. And then in Revelation 22, this image is going to be taken up again as the tree of life spans across a river, and this river brings healing to the nations. This is the perfect healing power of the Holy Spirit.

Next, we’re going to find seven flaming torches. This comes from Zechariah chapter four, where the Holy Spirit is described as seven torches, which means He’s all revealing. In simple terms, this means it’s the Holy Spirit who reveals who God is to us.

Last but not least, the Holy Spirit is called the seven spirits of God. Suddenly, the students here are like, Hey, I thought there was only one Spirit of God? Now, there are seven spirits of God. What is going on here? Well, we have to remember that the number seven comes from the week of creation in Genesis, and it represents rest and completion. And if we go to the Septuagint text of Isaiah chapter eleven, the Holy Spirit is not only spoken of, but His attributes are listed as seven spirits, which are wisdom, understanding, counsel, strength, knowledge, godliness, and fear of the Lord. How many of you have felt the Holy Spirit creating those characteristics and virtues in you? It’s pretty powerful stuff.

IMAGES OF THE LAMB

Next, if we fast forward to Revelation chapter five, we’re going to find that the Lamb, whose lamb has seven horns. The image of a horn is all over the Old Testament. I think most notably, in this instance, it’s found in Psalm 132, where the horn is given as a symbol of David’s kingship over Israel. Not only that, but the Psalm will tell us that one is coming who will be the perfect King from the line of David.

Next, the Lamb has seven eyes. You know, I’ve traveled through Europe, I’ve traveled on the East Coast, and I’ve been to a lot of cathedrals. I haven’t seen many with stained glass depictions of the Lamb having seven eyes, though I think that would be kind of cool. The sci-fi nerds here would probably agree with me. But the seven eyes are probably not literal. We will likely not get to Heaven and find that the Lord has seven eyes.

This is an image. Of what? Well, if we go back to Zachariah four, it speaks to the all-seeing and all-perceptive nature of Jesus. What does He tell the seven churches? I am the one who searches the hearts and intentions of every man. This speaks to the fact that Jesus knows and searches all things.

Finally, in reflecting on the Lamb we find the seven spirits of God again, the Holy Spirit, but in chapter five they are going out into all the earth. Jesus said in His ministry in the Gospel of John, When the Son is taken and lifted high up, He will draw all humanity to Himself. This is speaking to the work of the Holy Spirit in revealing Jesus to the world. 

JESUS AND HOLY SPIRIT AS GATEWAY TO THE FATHER

So, if we go back to the image of the Father as one hidden and mysteriously seated upon the throne, and if we look at all these Trinitarian images going on the work of the Holy Spirit and the work of the Son, what we conclude from all of this is that it’s impossible to know the Father without a living relationship with Jesus and the Holy Spirit. It seems like an awfully simple concept, but here is John throwing nearly every image in the book at us, going, Hey, there’s only one way to the Father, and it’s through Jesus and through the Holy Spirit.

Jesus makes this truth abundantly clear throughout His ministry when He says things like, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me”. Or when He says, “If you’ve seen Me, you’ve seen the Father”. Or when He says in John 14, “Those who love Me will keep My word, and My Father will love them, and We will come to them and make Our home with them.” Or when Jesus speaks of the Spirit in John 16, and says, “When the Spirit of Truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. For He will not speak on His own, but He will only speak whatever He hears from the Father”.

We live in the postmodern period. We live in a largely secularized culture. Maybe we know a couple of hardened atheists, but most people aren’t hardened atheists. How many of you would say, I know a non-believing friend, and they’re willing to admit that there’s a higher power? How many have heard that before? Maybe some of us have heard, I believe in God; I just don’t believe in Jesus. Maybe they would even say, Hey, I believe God is creator, and He’s even all-powerful. And yet you, standing there as a Christian, would say, My friend does not know the Father. 

Why?

Because they don’t have Jesus and the Holy Spirit. That’s the only way in. That’s what set the early Christians and the early believers apart from all their neighbors. Whether those neighbors were non-believing Jews or pagan Romans or proto-Gnostic Greeks, the thing which set early Christians apart was the conviction that Jesus and His Spirit are the only access humanity has to the Father. There is no other way to Him.

That was also the conviction that incurred the persecution of the outside world. That’s what the other communities of that time hated: the exclusive truth that Jesus is the only way. I think an identical pressure exists in our time: a pressure to sideline Jesus by recognizing other truths, other ways to God, and other forms of salvation. But what does St. John see here? Without the Lamb, you cannot get to the one who’s seated on the throne.

No other god, no higher power, no religious system, philosophy, or ritual practice can get us through the door of Heaven’s throne room to the Father because the way is narrow. It’s only two persons wide. Jesus and the Holy Spirit are the only way in.

I think pastorally, it’s worth noting that I’ve encountered believers who will come to me or to the other pastor, and they’ll say, Hey, I know the Holy Spirit. I sense His peace. I feel His conviction. I know His guidance. Hey, I know Jesus. While Jesus is quite severe in some of the Gospels, I never feel like Jesus doesn’t love me. I know that He’s eternally compassionate, eternally loving.

Do you know which person of God most people have a difficult time with? The Father. But what is beautiful about this is that we don’t take our ideas of who the Father is from culture. We don’t take the ideas of who our Father is from our broken families. We don’t even take the idea of who the Father is from, just neatly comparing it to the structure of a human family.

Instead, we take the Father’s character from Jesus and the Holy Spirit. And what does Jesus have to say about the Father? He’ll say, Look at the lilies of the field. Not even Solomon in all his glory was dressed like one of these. Look at the ways birds fall in the field. Your Father doesn’t miss one of them. And if He doesn’t miss these things, how much more does He love you? That’s how Jesus reveals the Father to us.

So if you’re here this morning and you’ve struggled with the person of the Father, go to the Holy Spirit and go to Jesus. Ask them to reveal Him to you because they’re the only way in.

WRAPPING UP

Next week, I want to talk about the structure and the worship of the Heavenly throne room. There’s a phrase that occurs multiple times throughout this passage: around the throne. Where’s the throne? At the center. We’re going to find out next week that the first thing which circles around God’s throne is His glory. The second thing which circles God’s throne are the angels of Heaven. The third thing which encircles God’s throne are the human elders, which I think is so interesting. I want us to ask the question: where have I placed myself—whether in worship, life decisions, or in my relationship with God—at the center, rather than realizing He’s at the center and I’m at the outside? That should inform the way we worship.

Lord, I’m so excited as we embark into Revelation four, and I’m so soberly humbled from what is to come. But Lord, I see even here in chapter four that Your heart, Your love, and Your compassion are so infinitely revealed. So, Lord, as we study this text, make it more than an academic exercise. Make it something which centers our hearts and our spirits upon You.

Lord Jesus, we learned that You and Your Spirit are the only way in, so would You make our life centered exclusively around You? Would You make Yourself the center of the way we lead and navigate our families? Would You make Yourself the center of the way we work at our places of employment? Would You make Yourself the center of the way we relate to the unbelieving world?

Lord, as we proceed, would You make Yourself the center of everything within us and, most importantly for me, everything which comes out of us. Give us Your peace. Give us Your love. Give us Your guidance as we go throughout our week. We love You, and we honor You. We ask this in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.