Good morning, I’m so excited for today and our study of chapter 4 here in the book of Revelation. Today marks a major ‘scene shift’ in the book as we move from Jesus’ judgement of the 7 churches to the throne room of God and the beginning of the execution of His plan for the world. Before we start this major division in the book, there’s a few qualifiers and reminders I’d like to touch on before we dig into chapter 4.
1) Much of what we’ll see and hear John describe will seem very foreign, even very strange at times. But most of this is not presented first here in Revelation, but in the Old Testament. We will be doing alot of looking back at the OT. In fact from here on out I will just use that abbreviation to save time (OT for Old Testament.)
2) Remember to only read the black. Meaning we will only read and try to understand the words that God has given us. We don’t read between the lines, make up new or additional words and we don’t simply try to concoct ideas on our own. I pray every morning (and you should too) that the Holy Spirit of God will make His Word known to me in the fashion He deems necessary. I will not understand it all, which brings us to our next very important point.
3) We will not understand everything in God’s Word. The scene in Heaven and Christ’s judgement of the world is very lofty and complex and our human brains will not be able to fully grasp everything we read. We were never meant to understand the ways of God fully, in fact I don’t want a God that I can fully understand. Recall that the fall of man was because the serpent appealed to Eve’s desire to know everything that God knew. Satan was clever enough to appeal to man’s desire to think and understand like God. We will simply be reading God’s Word and then allowing His Holy Spirit to grant us the understanding He desires. We will not know all.
4) As we experience this great scene change starting in chapter 4, I want you to notice the now absent church. We have spent the last 7 days discussing the 7 churches and they are now very clearly absent from the pages of scripture. The church is mentioned 19 times in the first 3 chapters and then it is not mentioned again in connection with the world for the rest of Revelation's 22 chapters. Where did the church go? Not only will we see a major scene shift in chapter 4 but a major event will happen between the last verse of chapter 3 and the first verse of chapter 4. The church is no longer on the Earth, it has been raptured, or snatched away to Heaven to be with God. We will see several specific verses of this happening as we progress through our study of chapter 4.
Chapter 4 will move us from the island of Patmos where we have been thus far. John has been receiving information from Jesus and per His instructions he has been writing it all down. But starting with verse 1 of chapter 4, we will see that John only thought his day was going a bit strangely. He is about to take a trip to Heaven and be the only man in history that was allowed to document all he saw there.
4:1 - “After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! 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.”
Notice the very apparent time shift here as we have the opening verse bookended with “after this.” The verse opens with John saying that after He had written about the last church something else happened. This signifies closure on one event and the beginning of another. After that, he saw a door standing open in Heaven. Side note: as we proceed, be sure and take notice of every time John mentions sight and sound. He is giving us a very sensual picture of what He is seeing. This was real, John is seeing it, hearing it and I’m sure He was smelling it and feeling the textures as well. Folks, Heaven is real. He sees a door open in Heaven. It wasn’t opened for Him it was standing open. The door to Heaven is always open although He is just now allowed to see it. The open door is Jesus Christ and His ability to allow those who believe in Him to enter Heaven. John 10:9 says, “I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.” The voice John hears is Jesus and the voice tells Him to “come up here and I will show you what must take place after this.” Up here is Heaven and Jesus is going to let John document what ‘must take place.’ God is holy and judgement on an unbelieving world must take place.
I think about a judge that is sitting on his bench and there is great disorder in his court. He must maintain order in his court. His authority is in question if he allows disorder to become the norm. It’s similar to Jesus with this world. The judgement of the unholy and unrighteous must take place. God must keep order. We're in a period of grace right now, where God is allowing everyone the oppotunity to hear and believe in His Son. But this period of grace will not last forever, eventually God will move in judgement, which is the story of Revelation. Notice the last bookend as Jesus now adds His “after this.” He says I will show you what takes place 'after this.' After what? The rapture. Jesus has a very orderly progression for everything He does and Revelation is the pinnacle of order. In His order, Jesus snatches the church from the world before He begins His judgement of those left behind, those that have rejected Him.
4:2 - “At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne.”
At once is crucial here. What is ‘at once?’ At once is immediate, instantly. In 1 Cor 15:51-52 Paul tells us “Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.” Paul describes it as “in a moment, the twinkling of an eye.” Scientists determined the twinkling of an eye to not be a full blink and not the going down of the eyelid but just the going up of the eyelid (don’t ask me what these guys do with their free time…) The time of the twinkling of the eye? 1/1000 of a second. Folks when Jesus comes to snatch up His church, He will come like a thief in the night and in 1/000 of a second we will be in Heaven. Here John experienced that as He says it all happened “at once.” Before He could fully blink his eyes, He was looking at God sitting on His throne in Heaven.
4:3 - “And he who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald.”
It’s important to note here that 'He who sat on the throne' represents the triune God, the Holy Trinity. We see that John got here “in the Spirit” (v 4:2) and the we’ll see the Holy Spirit in the throne room again in v 4:5. We see Jesus in the throne room in v. 5:5 and see God the Father here in verse 4:3. The likeness of jewels is used greatly in Revelation. We see here the likeness of God compared to certain jewels and we’ll see jewels used greatly in the description of the New Jerusalem (Heaven) in chapter 21. Here the jasper is thought to be clear like a diamond. Radiating the glory and light of God off it’s many facets. The ruby is blood red. It’s interesting to note that these two stones were the first and the last in the breastplate of the High Priest in the OT. (Ex 28:19-21) This could refer to Jesus being the first and the last, or it could represent the death and resurrection of Christ or it could even be in reference to the tribes of Benjamin and Jacob. We’re just not specifically told. There was an emerald rainbow above the throne. The rainbow is a promise from God that He will never destroy the Earth by water again. (Gen 9:14-16) Not by water, but the Earth will be judged again and punished accordingly for its rejection of Jesus. This rainbow is emerald in color thought to represent the Earth.
4:4 “Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders, clothed in white garments, with golden crowns on their heads.”
Who the 24 elders are have been much debated. Most commentaries agree that they represent the newly raptured church, that is the elders of the church that are now in Heaven. I agree with this view. Another view is that 12 represent the tribes of Israel and the other 12 represent the 12 apostles with Paul replacing Judas Iscariot. But we’re never told this and scripture is clear that they are a unified group of 24, not 2 groups of 12. We do know however that they cannot be angels as angels never rule, sit on a throne or wear a crown anywhere in God’s Word. The elders are clothed in white representing the righteousness of God and the crowns indicate that the church will rule with Christ. (1 Cor 6:3) A crown is also mentioned several times as a reward. (2 Tim 4:8, James 1:12, 1 Peter 5:4)
4:5-6 - “ From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder, and before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God, 6 and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal.”
Thunder and lightning here on the Earth means a storm is brewing. It’s thought here that thunder and lightning is foreboding the judgement of God that is coming very shortly. The seven torches of fire represent the Holy Spirit of God in the throne room. It says before the throne it was like a sea of glass, like crystal. This is not a literal sea as there will be no sea in Heaven. (Rev 21:1) It seems to be a floor so highly polished and clear that it looked to John like a sea of glass. It must be beyond comprehension in it’s beauty.
4:7 “And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: 7 the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight.”
This passage introduces the four creatures who will play a significant role in the events in Revelation. People really start to get lost here as we encounter these “creatures” with crazy faces and tons of eyes. But let’s break it down. First off the phrase “living creatures” comes from a single Greek word that means “living ones.” Don’t think of these guys as some kind of crazy wild animals, beasts or monsters. In fact, in the OT, Ezekiel gives a detailed description of the creatures in Ezk 1:4-25. You should definitely take the time to read it, if you think Revelation gives a colorful description, check out Ezekiel’s! Ezekiel tells us they had human bodies and hands but different faces. We’ll see in the next verse they had 6 wings. So what are these living ones? Once again the answer comes from Ezekiel in the OT after he fully describes them. Ezekiel 10:15 “And the cherubim mounted up. These were the living creatures that I saw by the Chebar canal.” We learn here the four living creatures are cherubim, an exalted order of angels frequently associated in scripture with God’s Holy power and judgement. The word angel is defined as “messenger” and these cherubim are going to be messengers for God’s judgement that is about to ensue. There are two different schools of thought on their faces. The first is that they represent all of creation. The mans face of course represents mankind, the calf represents domesticated animals, the lion represents wild animals and the eagle flying creatures. Again, no fish here because there will not be any seas in Heaven. The other idea is that they represent the 4 Gospels of the NT. Personally, it seems like the first is more realistic since the entire world and everything in it is about to be judged by God.
4:8 - “And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!”
The six wings are described in the OT book of Isaiah. “Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.” (By the way this is one of the only examples in God’s Word of an angel flying specifically using wings.) This is the second time we are told the cherubim have “eyes all around, within, front and back.” This allows them to see all and symbolizes their awareness, alertness, and comprehensive knowledge.
4:9-11 - “And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying, 11 “Worthy are you, 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.”
Our scene here in Heaven ends in worship directed towards God on His Throne. Between chapters 4 and 5 we will find 5 great hymns of praise, each gradually increasing in the numbers of singers. The 24 elders here praise God for His glory, His honor, His power and His creation. How worthy God is to be worshipped for all of these today and forever.
That wraps up our look at Revelation chapter 4 and our first glimpse into the throne room of God. I hope that what might have been confusing at first is now easier to grasp. As we continue to move through the chapters, the imagery will continue to be as big, bold and vivid as the God we serve. But we’ll take the book of Revelation the same way that you eat an elephant…one bite at time.
If you’re reading this, you’re being prayed for. Share the glory of God’s Word with someone in your life today. Blessings.
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