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Being about Revelation chapter number four, we want to consider the throne room of God. And so going back to chapter one, obviously we've had an introduction. John tells us that these are things that were revealed to him that would soon must take place. And, um, I have argued that those, these things would take place in 70 a D at the judgment of, uh, apostate Israel who had, uh, crucified their Messiah the promised one and And so forth and so John received instructions to give some churches seven churches in particular that were in existence during that day on what they needed to straighten up or critique, so to speak, by our Lord, giving them guidance on how to repent or what they needed to repent of and what they needed to return doing. Two of those churches we know did not receive rebukes in far as their wrongdoing, but was encouraged to carry on in what they were doing. And then after you go from the introduction to the letter to the seven churches, Now we enter into the courtroom, so to speak. The legal setting begins to unfold and we enter the throne room of God. And so that's kind of how the book of Revelation carries on. And so chapter four has been amazing to me. I love reading chapter four. You will find quickly that Revelation chapter four is centered on the throne of God. Everything about Revelation chapter four that is going to be described for us is told to us and measured based on its proximity from the throne. So you're going to see before the throne, around the throne, in the midst of the throne, above the throne, everything is told to us or described to us based on its location near the throne, which means that the focus point of chapter four is none other than the throne of God. So we want to look at that tonight and I'll give you these headings as we carry along, but we want to begin first of all, just looking at heading number one, the summons. the summons. So verse number one, John says, after these things, I looked and behold a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice, which I heard had heard like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me said, come up here and I will show you what you, what must take place after the summons. these things. So let's just consider our first heading in verse number one, the summons. John was called up. He was summoned up to come and look, to come and behold. The heavenly door has opened to John. John goes up. John being a prophet, a apostle, he goes up before the Lord. You could even say he gets to enter the council room or the council chamber, so to speak, of the king of kings and Lord of lords. And my mind goes back to Amos chapter three, verse seven, that says, surely the Lord God does nothing unless he reveals his secret counsel to his servants, the prophets. And so, nothing that God is about to do did he withhold from one of the prophets. He calls John up and says, hey, this is what's about to go down. This is what is about to unfold. A very similar scene, if you reflect back again to the Old Testament. Who else do we know kind of got this picture? Our minds should go back to Isaiah Isaiah chapter 6 where it begins in verse 1 that says in the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord high and lifted up sitting upon his throne his robe filled the temple and the glory of God was in all the earth and around the throne I saw you know the living creatures the seraphim and They had six wings, with two they flew, two they covered their face, two they covered their feet, and they were saying back and forth to one another, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. So we remember that scene. But we also need to keep in mind as we read Revelation 4, Ezekiel chapter one, Ezekiel chapter one. Ezekiel saw these things very similarly to John. He heard the trumpet that was called up and so forth. But what about this trumpeting voice? I know typically a A dispensational mindset would probably argue for the trumpet to blow for the rapture to occur, but the Bible teaches us what John is saying here back in verse 10 and 11 of chapter one. He said, I was in the spirit on the Lord's day in verse 10 of chapter one, and I heard behind me a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet saying, write in a book what you see. So who was the voice of the trumpet? It was the voice of Jesus. speaking to John. So what John is telling us in verse one is when he was called up, he was told to come up here, the voice that he heard like a trumpet was Jesus saying, hey John, come here, come here, I got something to tell you. So that's really what we have unfolding in verse number one. Verses two through three, we wanna look at our second heading, the throne. The throne, verse two. Immediately I was in the spirit and behold, a throne was standing in heaven, and one sitting on the throne. And he who was sitting was like a Jasper stone and a sorry a stone in appearance. And there was a rainbow around the throne, like an emerald in appearance. So let's pause here for a moment and consider the throne. From what I understand, the reason the scripture points to this throne standing, as John said here, a throne was standing in heaven. That word standing implies that this throne, and when you think of a throne, you need to think of God's fixed, unalterable, sovereign rule. like his position of rule that can never be moved, never be taken away from him. It is fixed, it is settled, it is certain. His position of authority can never be moved. And that word standing there implies that, that God's rule is unshakable. It is fixed, it is permanent, so to speak. And so what John is getting a vision of is a throne that is immovable. It is fixed in its position, permanent, unchanging, with God in complete control of the universe. It's interesting to note that God's throne is the primary focus or the primary picture in Revelation. From what I understand, the word throne is mentioned 62 times in the New Testament. 47 times in Revelation. So 62 times in the New Testament and 47 of those times are in the book of Revelation. In other words, the book is dominated by the idea that there is a throne in heaven and it is the center of all things and that the one that occupies that throne is sitting on that throne to never be removed. It is, for it to speak of the throne 47 out of 62 times lets me know that God's throne is central to the mind of John. The one who is reigning and ruling and issuing judgment, that particular place is central to John's mind. I was thinking about Psalm 103 verse 19. The Bible says, the Lord has established his throne in the heavens and his sovereignty rules over all. This throne is the focus. Everything in heaven is measured by its proximity to the throne on the throne, around the throne, out from the throne, in front of the throne, in the midst of the throne. And later you will see that the wrath of God comes out forth from the throne. It's all centered on the throne. So that's the throne. Now we wanna look at these prepositional phrases. And so the first one we're gonna look at, heading number three, we see the summons. Secondly, we see the throne. Thirdly, I want you to see the phrase on the throne. Well, who is on the throne here in verse two? He says, a throne was standing in heaven and the one sitting on the throne, he who was sitting was like a Jasper stone. and a Sardius in appearance. Sits on the throne. Is that familiar language in the Bible? Well certainly if we've read Hebrews, right? That Christ has been exalted and now he what? Sits at the right hand of the Father on high. Now what do we know about the posture of sitting? Does sitting imply that he needs a rest? We've got to be careful because unless you bump up to a liberal, you may not hear that argument, but anyone who wants to kind of bring down the power and exaltation of Christ would point out, well, he's sitting, he's tired. Well, no, sitting does not ever imply necessarily, well, sitting does not imply tired. Sitting implies something has been accomplished. That's what sitting implies. Now, how do I know that? Is that just made up? Well, of course not. Because we get that information from Hebrews chapter one, verse three, where it says that after Jesus made propitiation for our sin, he what? Sat down. And the reason he sat down is because his sacrifice was sufficient. He didn't have to have a line of Levitical priests circulating continuously for offering sacrifices. His blood, he didn't have to offer for his sin and the sin of the people. He offered it strictly for the sins of the people. And then he sat down because that blood does not forgive us just today until we make it to tomorrow. That blood satisfied the wrath of God toward us for our past, present and future sin. That's what the blood of Christ has done. So it's not a tired or give out position. It is a position of accomplishment and it's also a position to imply reigning authority. Psalm 47 verse eight, God reigns over the nations. God sits on his holy throne. So we understand this and hopefully you see that throughout the Bible, but this is who is on the throne. It is Christ. He occupies the throne. John says here he was in the spirit when he was called up in verse two. We have people from time to time, if you, you know, I used to hear as a kid growing up, Boy, he was in the spirit today. You ever heard that phrase or somebody say something? And usually, all that usually means is somebody just got a little excited, right? You know, growing up, when I first started preaching, I'll never forget, you go to church or church, and somebody would ask you, boy, that's just a dead church down there, you know? And you're like, why is it dead? Well, they saw nobody even move down there. Nothing happens down there. Oh, that's what dead means? Like the Spirit of God's not in there, you know? And one time my pastor gave me a unique example. He said, you see that light socket over there on the wall? Does it move and scream and carry on? I said, no. He said, go put your finger in it. You know, the point being is that just because somebody's not up hooping and hollering don't mean that the Spirit of God is not in that church. So when we say in the Spirit, what does that mean? It don't mean we sang everybody's favorite Gaither song or whatever that day. That means that John was caught up to the spiritual realm beyond the flesh. So let us not impose on the word of God what is not meant to be there. When John says he was caught up in the spirit, he just simply means he was transported from one place to the next, and I don't think that's happened to nobody in a local church lately. If it has, they came back and wrote the little yellow book, His Heaven is for Real, which was made up anyway. So anyway, that's my soapbox. So he's caught up in the spirit, to heaven. And what does he see? He says, behold, a throne was standing in heaven, one sitting on the throne, and he who was sitting there was like a Jasper stone. Why do you think these two stones are mentioned, Jasper and Sardius in appearance? Well, you know, it just kind of sparks our interest, doesn't it? It pulls us in and intrigues us. But as we think about what is taking place here, This is very similar to what Ezekiel said. I'm going to read it for you. You can write it down and read it later, but Ezekiel chapter one, verse 26 to 28, it says, and above the expanse over their heads, there was the likeness of a throne and appearance like Sapphire and seated above the likeness of a throne was the likeness of a human appearance. and upward from what the appearance of his waist i saw was a gleaming metal like the appearance of fire enclosed all around and downward from what had the appearance of his waist i saw it as the appearance of fire and there was brightness around him like the appearance of a bow that is in the cloud of the day of rain So was the appearance of the brightness all around. Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of God. And when I saw it, I fell on my face and I heard the voice of one speaking. And now John tells us he sees the same type of brightness and he even sees a bow, a rainbow all the way around the throne. So why would John, remember what I told you, there's nearly 445 allusions to the Old Testament in the book of Revelation. So why would John mention Jasper and Sardis? Well, the first color Jasper that is mentioned is the last stone that was in the high priest's breastplate in Exodus chapter 28 verse 20. And then Jasper, if you turn over to Revelation 21, 11, represents the glory of God. So what did Isaiah, now here's the interesting connection, the glory of God. What did Isaiah say in Isaiah six? He said, I saw the Lord high and lifted up. I saw his glory. What is the glory of God? Well, John 12 tells us that the glory of God is Jesus Christ. Second Corinthians chapter four, verse six says, it is God who said, light shall shine forth out of darkness, who has shown into your hearts to give you the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, which is found in the face of Jesus Christ. So the glory that is shining so bright that they cannot behold it is Christ on the throne. And he mentioned Jasper in reference to the high priest breastplate. Sardius Sardis also was the first stone. So the last stone from what I understand in the high priest is breast breast plate was Jasper. The first stone was Sardis. That's Exodus 28. The first stone from what I understand in the old Testament represented the first born, which was who Reuben talking about the 12 tribes. The last born of the 12 sons of Jacob was Benjamin. Now, some say it is possible that, you know, you take the name Reuben and it means behold a son, and then the name Benjamin means son of my right hand. So, picturing God's son, his firstborn, at his right hand. That's an interesting take, which I like. So why are these, you know, I think any curious reader If meditating on this very long would begin to ask the question, why didn't we get told what color his eyes were, how long his hair was, shape, figure, and all that? You wonder, why is it all this bright light talk? Well, Paul said this in 1 Timothy 6, 16, who dwells in unapproachable light. So what John's testimony, as he was called up, agreed with Paul's definition of Christ. He was in an unapproachable light. All they could see was the splendor of this. And I don't, I've tried all week to wrack my brain around what they, what it looked like, you know, um, it definitely was bright and full of splendor. Uh, these three stones, Jasper, Sardis, and Emerald, You know, all that goes back to the breastplate of the high priest. But let me give you something else that's interesting. I thought in Ezekiel 28, the Bible tells us that these same stones that were mentioned were basically found scattered in the garden of Eden. I think there's some connections there. I won't get into all that, but I think it's intriguing. So where is John? He's in the true temple. You remember Hebrews tells us that Jesus passed through the heavenly temple, the one that was made without hands. This is where John is. He's not in the temple on earth. He's called to the temple of God in heaven. And he has passed through that. Well, next number four, not only do we see the one on the throne, but I want you to see next the things around the throne. So the rest of verse three to verse four around the throne, it says, and there was a rainbow around the throne, like an Emerald and appearance. So we have a Jasper Sardis and Emerald, but you know, the rainbow was around the throne. Now also around the throne was 24, Elders So let's think about these two rainbow 24 elders. That's what we'll think about right now We think about the rainbow You know today you got to be careful, don't you? Let's just be honest. And I'm not trying to make fun. I'm just saying today, as we know, culture can take words and make them mean things that God never intended for them to be. And, you know, rainbow is not for supporting the LGBTQ plus movement. The rainbow is a sign of God's mercy. The rainbow is a sign of God's covenantal faithfulness. The rainbow is a sign of God's grace, and that's what it should bring to our memory every time we see one, is the mercy, the grace, and the faithfulness of God. And so when we think about that rainbow and the emerald of appearance, I don't know, I've tried to envision it. You know, they've done some unique things with AI technology. I don't know if y'all, you know, y'all, I probably get it, look into stuff too much, but I look into all that, you know, and they'll type in, they'll really, what you can do is put in this verse in AI and it will present back to you a painted portrait of the way it interprets it to look. And it'll just about take your breath away to see how artificial intelligence can take what was written and produce back some type of artwork to try to give you a visual image. Which again, I'm not promoting that. I'm just telling you it's possible to do that. And I'm not telling you what it generates is going to be exactly like what's going to be there when you get there. But the image it gives you will be very attractive. Now, thinking about all of that, we also hear these 24 elders. It says 24 elders were around the throne. And upon the thrones, I saw 24 elders sitting. So let's think about these 24 elders. Who are they? Well, I'm just going to go ahead and tell you the amount of information I worked through to kind of formulate a clear thought here. There's so much discussion regarding the 24 elders. One of the most popular views is one guy has written regard, making them out to be angels, a particular higher ranking angel that he's argued is the 24 of the 24 elders. And I'm going to tell you why I don't believe that. And I'll tell you why I think they are. They point to all this save throughout all the ages, just kind of a representation, a number, a symbol number. So let me just say what I believe they are. I believe they represent all the elect of all the ages. Now, how do we get to that point? How do we get to that summary? All right, so when we think about the number 24, obviously we got 12 tribes in the Old Testament, and how many apostles we've got in the New? 12. Well, 12 and 12, they say there's 24, and we'll take their word for it. That's a joke, but anyway. First thing, 24 elders, they're on the thrones, they're sitting on thrones, which indicate what? If these are on thrones, sitting on a throne indicates you're what? What did we just say Christ was doing? He's reigning. So if there's somebody else sitting on the throne, what does that imply they're doing? They're reigning. Who are the only ones that have ever been promised to rule and reign with Christ? You elect Christians, right? The people of God, people who have believed in Jesus Christ. They are the ones who have been promised they're gonna rule and reign with Christ. Revelation 2, 26 to 27. Just about at the end of every church we read, Jesus promised them that they would what? They would do this, this would be them. Revelation 321, let me read to you Matthew 19, 28. Jesus said to them, truly I say to you that you who have followed me in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you shall sit upon 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel. So there's Luke 22, 30, that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and you will sit on thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel. Now, first Corinthians six, verses two to three. Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? If the world is judged by you, are you not competent to constitute the smallest law courts? Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more matters of this life? In other words, Christians will rule and reign with Christ. So that's one of my reasonings why I believe that these 24 elders is a number that symbolizes those that have been saved throughout all the time that the universe has existed. Secondly, when you use the term elder, 24 elders, Now, the word elder, if you study that word, and it kinda goes simultaneously with pastor, bishop, that particular individual is seen as being a leader in the church, that particular title or position. Elder is never given to an angel, nor are angels told that they will rule and reign with Christ. but the saved of all the ages have been told they would rule and reign with Christ. And he calls them elders, which is a ruling position within the local church. All right. Thirdly, notice what it says here in verse four, I saw the 24 elders sitting and they're clothed in what white garments. Now, Who else do we know is clothed in white garments? Christ. And we're clothed in his what? Righteousness. So that's my third argument. It's pretty simple here. I would argue, and I like keeping the main things, the plain things and the plain things, the main things. So I'm just easily walking through this, not trying to make it difficult at all. Ruling and reigning with Christ, elder term, white garments. I see the, you know, the machine just going. It's Christians, the saved of all the ages. Chapter 19, verse eight says, she will clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean, the bride of the lamb. And we know that white, what? Though your sins be like scarlet, you shall be washed white as snow. We know these scriptures. So don't let the, don't, sometimes, you know, we read these things and it just kind of overpowers us, but just keep the simple, you know, keep the main things before you. Fourthly, keep reading verse four. Not only clothed in white garments, but they will have what? Golden crowns on their head. Who are the only other people in the Bible that get crowns? The saved of all the ages. That's who gets crowns to do what? Cast before the Lord. So who are the 24 elders? It's my question. And I just find it fascinating that argument after argument is want to be drug out and I get it. I get it, I get it. But just being a simple walkthrough, I think it's pretty straightforward to conclude that 24 elders is got to be a number that symbolically points to the saved of all the ages. I really, that's where my, My conviction on that stands. Well, we don't have time. Some would say, well, a word maybe meant this during 68 AD, or words may have meant this or that. And I get it. When someone gets their doctorate degrees, particularly in a PhD, They have to find a subject that they're wanting to do a lot of research on and a lot of writing. And when they do that, they're pulling from so many different angles and they produce this work. And I get it. And some of his arguments, you know, raise an eyebrow. But just trying to be simple and plain, like letting the text speak right in front of your face, I think it's hard to kind of impose or force it to mean something else. when to me it just clearly points to the saved of all the ages who have come by way of Christ. We've been clothed in white garment. We've been given crowns throughout our life that we cash back at Him. We're gonna rule and reign with Christ. I mean, all these things just, to me, fit together there. You remember Paul said in 2 Timothy 4, eight, he said, the Lord, the righteous judge will, I'm sorry, there is reserved for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge will give me on that day. 1 Corinthians 9, they compete to receive a perishable crown, but we, an imperishable crown. It's all Christian, the Savior of all the ages. Now, what about this 24? Why 24? Why not 12? Why not seven? Why not, what? It's interesting to me that when you go back to the Old Testament, don't dismiss that. Going back to the Old Testament, 1 Chronicles chapter 24 tells us that in David's day, David divided the priesthood up into 24 courses. First Chronicles 25 tells us that David had 24 divisions of singers. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Uh, uh, Ezekiel, if you go back to Ezekiel chapter eight, it tells us Ezekiel saw 25 men, but one of those men with a high priest. Okay. So Hebrews chapter seven, eight, nine, and 10 tell us that Jesus is our what? Our great high priest. Well, who's the other 24? So anyway, uh, that's where I am on it. If you want to discuss that and argue about it, there's a wall right over there. But that's just where I am on the 24 hours. They have the crowns that they were cast at Christ's feet. Now let's move on to our fifth heading, verse number five. It says, out from the throne. So we've saw the throne, we've saw the one on the throne, we've looked around the throne. Now let's see what comes out from the throne, verse five. Well, the Bible says out from the throne comes flashes of lightning and sounds and pills of thunder. Wonder where that's from. You guessed it, the Old Testament. Well, what is John doing? Well, in John's mind, this judgment that's coming is coming upon who? Covenant breakers, Israel. Where did they make this agreement before God that they was going to do all that the law said they was going to do? At the foot of Mount Sinai. How did God appear at Mount Sinai? Loud clashes of thunder and lightning. Well, Exodus 19 said, when morning came, there was thunder and lightning, thick cloud on the mountain, and a very loud blast from a trumpet. We just heard that language. Exodus 20, verse 18, all the people witnessed the thunder and lightning and the sounding of a trumpet. Ezekiel 1, 13, he says the same thing, that fire was moving back and forth, it was bright, lightning coming out. So remember why John was called up there now. Don't forget that. This God who is righteous and holy and is set upon a throne is about to execute judgment on those who have broken covenant. He's about to let the wrath of God flow out from his throne like the land had never saw before nor never will see again upon those who declared we have no king but Caesar. Now Revelation 15, now how can I go about proving that? Revelation 15 five says, after this, I looked in the heavenly temple, the tabernacle of testimony was opened. Why would the tabernacle of testimony be opened? Well, we first got to know preacher what the tabernacle of testimony is, right? Who cares if it was open? If I don't know what was open, well, what's the tabernacle of testimony? In the old Testament, the tabernacle of testimony, guess what it contained? The tablets of testimony, which guess what were what? God's law. So as the law is opened, the inspection will be given. Will blessings or curse flow? Curses. There's two options that the law presents blessing or curse. And it depended on Israel's obedience to the law. And so what we have in this book of revelation or the book of revealings is God's judgment is about to come crashing down on those who have broken covenant, those who have rejected the Messiah and put him to death. So let's look at our six heading before the throne versus five to six. And there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God. And before the throne, there was something like a sea of glass, like crystal. I said, oh, that's something, isn't it? Just to think of that imagery. But when we think about this before the throne, seven lamps, they're the seven spirits of God. We've already covered that in Ephesians, Revelation chapter one, which just point, the word seven means complete, or the number seven means complete. So when it says seven spirits, you're not talking about one, two, three, four, five, six, seven spirits just floating around. It's implying that the spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, has complete knowledge, complete everything, just like the Father. Isaiah 11, verse two, that's a critical verse. It lists the sevenfold of the Holy Spirit, speaking of wisdom, understanding, counsel, strength, knowledge, reverence, and deity. Isaiah 11, verse two. Well, what is this sea of glass? Like crystal. I don't know, that's something else I've been pondering. You know, you think about all these things that have been described, but think about it, when they can't, you cannot dismiss what John is experiencing from the temple in the Old Testament, right? You just can't do it or you're gonna miss it. But when they walked in, what do they have? They had a bowl of what over here? They had a bowl of water that they had to what? It'll wash their hands before they go any further. Why? Because it implied there was a great chasm between them and the presence of God, right? And so they had to cleanse themselves before they could go so far into closer to the presence of God. And what John says here is he sees a sea. like glass, implying the truth Jesus said in Luke, I think it's Luke 19 or 16, I get them backwards, where the rich man died and went to hell. He said, there's a great, what, gulf fixed between me and you. And I think the implication of the glassy sea is pointing to the water. In other words, there's an epic cleansing that must take place before you get to the presence of God. And we know that we have passed through that in Christ. Exodus 2410 tells us Moses, Aaron, and the elders of Israel, they saw the God of Israel and under his feet there appeared to be a pavement of sapphire, as clear as the sky itself. Exodus 30, 19 to 21 says, when they enter the tent of meeting or approach the altar to minister a burning food of the Lord, they must wash with water so that they will not die. So my argument is, is what you're seeing is the heavenly temple that was not made with hands. And it is a vast in comparison to what was made with hands. Now, heading number seven, we see that in the midst of the throne and around the throne again, he says here in verse six, And in the center and around the throne, four living creatures full of eyes in front and behind. First creature was like a lion, the second like a calf, and the third creature had a face like that of a man, and the fourth creature was like that of a flying eagle. And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within, and day and night they do not cease to say, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who is, was, who is, and who is to come. I don't know about you, but a lion, a calf, and the other ones that were mentioned there, an eagle and a man, that's just unique, isn't it? Just being honest. Guess who else saw the same thing? Ezekiel, Ezekiel chapter one, same thing. Now it's interesting. I know, um, you know, you get to thinking about these, this scene. Is it cherubim? Is it seraphim? Well, we hear about the seraphim. They had six wings, you know, and they had to do this and do that, and they were the ones hollering back and forth. Well, which ones is it, or is it just the same word used kind of the same way describing the same type of creatures? There's a lot of question on that, and I'm not gonna pin down the answer for you on that, but I think it's interesting to kind of speculate about. However, what I think's important here is when we think about these four creatures, we're told That they're full of eyes. Well, I mean, do we literally think that this thing that John saw has just eyes everywhere on it? We got to be careful here because you're going to make a decision and say, OK, yeah, I believe that. So when you see this thing, it's just going to have eyeballs everywhere, right? You gotta be careful on how you're gonna interpret the Bible. So it's kinda like Jesus saying, look, if your left eye offends you, pluck it out. So you're gonna walk around with a patch or not. How are we gonna take the Bible? We gotta figure out how to interpret these things. Literally, like literally do this, or tie a millstone around his neck and throw him off the cliff and let him sink, right? What do we do with all this? So when he says full of eyes, what does that mean? Well, I think we would all be able to describe something similar to what it meant. If you had eyes everywhere, that meant you could what? You see everything. So let's, as I love the way Alistair said, you're sensible people. So, you know, you understand eyes everywhere just simply imply you see everything. There's nothing escaping your notice. In other words, that would imply that these creatures are fully alert, fully aware of what's going on. We're told one is like a lion, a calf, a man, and an eagle. And if you're like me, you almost wanna go, so? That is so weird. What am I gonna do with a calf, a lion, a man, an eagle? What do we do with that? Well, in one of the earliest Jewish writings, this is what those particular creatures represented, which most theologians agree that they represent in Revelation. is the created world. The lion represented wild creatures, the calf represented domestic animals, the eagle represents flying creatures, and the man represents the pinnacle of God's creation. That's how the Talmud interpreted that. Now, Some of them would say symbolically, the lion would represent strength, the calf would represent service, man would represent reason, and eagle would represent speed. It's also interesting that when you read about these 12 tribes of Israel and where they were camped, they had four banners that they were camped under. And those four banners, some were with Reuben, some were with Dan, others were with Ephraim, and then the rest were with Judah. Which is why you get the lion from the tribe of Ephraim. Judah. So the banner that Reuben had symbolized man, the banner that Dan had symbolized an eagle, and the banner that Ephraim had symbolized a calf, and then Judah symbolized a lion. They had six wings. What's somebody going to do with so many wings? Isaiah says, two they flew, two they cover their face, two they cover their feet. Well, you got to be careful if you've got eyes everywhere, why are they covering their face? So is the seraphim and cherubim the same thing? That ball's in your court. But I think the implication is here when we consider the wings that they had, It implies that they were ready for duty. They were ready to carry out something. I think the implication is, just to kind of summarize that, is that these four living creatures are prepared to bring forth the wrath of God because they're mentioned as pouring out the bowls of wrath in some future chapters. The last one, and this will close out chapter four, is toward the throne. What do we have toward the throne? We have the song here in eight, verse nine, where the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne, to him who lives forever and ever. 24 elders will fall down before him who sits on the throne. and will worship him who lives forever and ever, and will cast their crowns before the throne, saying, were there you, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and because of your will they existed and were created. So it seems to me we've got some angelic beings worshiping and we got the 24 elders worshiping, which I believe the 24 elders are every saved throughout all the ages. So we've got angels worshiping and we've got saved people worshiping. Now, this is the interesting part to me that Ken Gentry points out in his commentary back in verse number 11. They were singing, worthy are you, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and because of your will they existed and were created. He points out that these living creatures, their song was about God, and the 24 elders' song was to God. He also points out that the living creatures sing of God's attributes, And then the 24 elders praise him for his sovereign work. So I found that incredibly interesting how all of creation joins in to sing to the fullness of God. The angelic host sing about God and those who have been redeemed sing to God. Isn't that incredible how it just makes one full circle? He's got all of his creation singing about him and the ones in whom he's redeemed were singing to him. Worthy is the Lamb who was slain. Well, it's an incredible place to visit the throne room of God. There's a lot of things here. But my hope for you this evening is you know that one that sits upon that throne. His name is the Lord Jesus Christ. And he will save those who come to him. I hope you know him. Let's pray. Father,
The throne room of God
Series Revelation
Sermon ID | 8124220291390 |
Duration | 43:04 |
Date | |
Category | Midweek Service |
Bible Text | Revelation 4 |
Language | English |
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