Our scripture reading this evening is taken from the book of Revelation, the Revelation of Jesus Christ and chapter 4. With chapter 4 the book moves on to the series of visions that make up the majority of it. The previous section has been the things that are, and now it moves on to the things that are to come, to pass. So, Revelation chapter 4. After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this. Immediately I was in the Spirit, and behold a throne set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. And he who sat there was like a jasper, and a sardier stone appearance, and there was a rainbow around the throne in appearance like an emerald. Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and on the thrones I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white robes, and they had crowns of gold on their heads. And from the throne proceeded lightnings, thunderings and voices. Seven lamps of fire were burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God. Before the throne there was a sea of glass, like crystal. And in the midst of the throne and around the throne were four living creatures full of eyes in front and in back. The first living creature was like a lion. The second living creature like a calf. The third living creature had a face like a man. And the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle. The four living creatures each having six wings. were full of eyes around and within that do not rest day or night saying holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come. Whenever living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever. Twenty-four elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever. And cast their crowns before the throne, saying, You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power. For You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created. And may God bless the readings of his holy word. The book of Revelation is first and foremost, as it is described in chapter 1, verse 1, the revelation of Jesus Christ. And it consists broadly of two parts. There are the notes, the letters of the seven churches and there are the visions of the great sweep of history. And having passed through those notes of seven churches that deal with actual churches in that day and age, churches that are still churches like those churches around, we come then to John's great vision of the things that are to come to pass. What is to take place. But before he enters into the things that are to take place, he is given a vision of the great throne room of heaven. And the point here is not something esoteric, rather it is to ground everything that follows in the wonderful fact of the sovereignty of God, that our God reigns. there is a throne. A door standing open in heaven he is told to come up and see and this is simply him coming up and seeing to see the things that are to happen. And immediately he says I was in the spirit and behold a throne set in heaven and one sat on the throne. There are two great facts here. First there is a throne. There is somebody over everything. There is a single sovereign. One of the commentators writing back in the 1930s reflects upon the fact that back in his day there was an issue of a magazine in the United States the five men who control the world. And this being the 1930s they included a certain Mr. A. Hitler and Mussolini and Stalin. And what a wonderful thing that men like Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin are not the people who rule the world. That it's God who rules the world. That there is one sovereign, there is one throne. And that throne is set in heaven. God, says the psalmist, has established his throne in the heavens and his kingdom rules over all. And before John is shown anything of history that is to come, he has shown this fact. Because we can't understand, we can't really process what is to happen apart from the fact of the sovereignty of God. Apart from the fact that God reigns. He is given that same mission that Isaiah is given to say unto Zion, your God reigns. Here we are at the beginning of another year. We're at the beginning of A year in which, in the not-too-distant future at all, in fact, in a week's time, Donald Trump will be installed, will become, and whether the inauguration, whatever happens to the inauguration, Donald Trump will become, because that's the law, the President of the United States of America. But our God reigns. Whoever the President is. And you see, it's exactly the same four years ago, when Joe Biden became a President. our God is still on the throne. And there is some resemblance here particularly in the living creatures at the throne and the vision of the throne to Isaiah chapter 6. Isaiah had his vision in the year that King Uzziah died. Uzziah had been a good king and yet a weak king. A man who started well and ended poorly. And it was a time of transition. Isaiah doesn't tell us whether it was before or after the death of the king. But either way, it was a time of transition. And at that time, Isaiah is given that great reminder, our God reigns. There is a throne and there is one who sits on the throne. And you will notice there is one who sits on the throne. There is no contest for the throne. There is one God who rules over all. Now as the vision develops the Trinitarian aspect comes out. In this chapter we see the seven lamps of fire that represent the Holy Spirit and in the following chapter we see in the midst of the throne Revelation 5 verse 6, In the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as though it had been slain. The Lord Jesus, the Lamb of God, who rules and reigns. So there is that aspect of the Holy Trinity. God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. One God and there is therefore one who sat on the throne. And as John speaks of what he saw, he gives us no description really. He gives us some illusion. It's important again to remind ourselves that the visions of Revelation are not photographs. They are rather impressionist pictures. point about the impressionist picture is that you don't zoom in on the detail but you stand back and you see the whole picture and then you can look at the various parts of the picture but it's one picture and it's supposed to hit us as one picture and in the picture then we see that he who sat on the throne with like a jasper and a sardier stone appearance one of the issues sometimes with translation is that we're not always entirely sure what the precious stones mentioned in the bible are It's rather like the birds in the law in the Old Testament. We're not quite sure which birds they actually are. But some things don't really matter. The point here is that we have these glittering transparent stones. And here there's something of a harking back to the vision of Ezekiel. That Ezekiel sees this vision of a God's mobile throne. And there is this glorious person who's sitting on the throne. and He is in the middle. He is in the centre. We may say that the universe, properly considered, is God-centred. It's centred on Him. Everything is centred upon Him. And there is a rainbow around the throne in appearance like an emerald. Now the rainbow in scripture takes us back to the days of Noah and God's promise never again to destroy the earth with water. It speaks of God's faithfulness and God's power and might. And around the throne, then, we have these 24 thrones. And on the thrones, 24 elders, clothed in white robes and crowns of gold on their heads. Now, who are the 24 elders? Well, first we have the number 24. 24 is 12 plus 12, or 12 times 2, if you prefer it that way. 12 is the number of the apostles, it's the number of the tribes of Israel, and it is here doubled. There's also the point that in Leviticus, sorry, in 1st Chronicles, 1st Chronicles 24, we have the Levites mentioned in the organisation of the temple. So, 1 Chronicles chapter 24. And we are told that there are 24 groups of Levites, 24 courses of the priests. So it's the idea of the number of those who are serving God. But also we're told these are elders, they're leaders. Now, whatever they are, they represent the people of God. They are people who are clothed in white roses, a picture of holiness in scripture, and they have crowns of gold on their heads. The crown speaks of authority, it speaks of power. So these are the leaders of the people of God. They are representative figures. They are those who exist to represent God's people in God's presence. And God's people have at their very centre God himself. They are arranged around around the throne of God. And from the throne proceeded lightnings, thunderings and voices. And here we have an allusion to Mount Sinai when God came down on Sinai. There was lightning, thunderings and the voice of God. God is on the throne and he is speaking. and he is working, he is mighty, he is powerful. That's the meaning here, it's that God is not simply sitting on a throne in a ceremonial sense, he is at work, and before there were seven lamps of fire, which are the seven spirits of God, or the sevenfold spirit. And God is by the Spirit that God does what he does. So we have the active God sitting on the throne of the universe. And in front of the throne there is a sea of glass, like crystal. To the Hebrews, the sea spoke of separation. They were never a sea-going people. The arrangement of Israel was such that the sea was not really used very much for transport along the coast. In this country, the sea was not seen historically as a way of separation. In fact, it's We noted that in 18th century Wales the inland transport routes were so undeveloped that the sea was the opposite of a means of separation. The sea was how you got from place to place. If you wanted to go from London to Wales, you could get a coach down to Bristol. You'd then get on a boat at Bristol and then sail round to wherever you wanted in Wales. Or if it was North Wales, you'd go to Liverpool and sail round. But in Israel, it was the other way around. In Israel, you travelled on the roads. And the sea was that which separated. And of course for John, here he's in exile on the Isle of Patmos. The sea is literally what separates him from everybody. But here the separation is not so much this idea of sin separating, it's the idea of the holiness of God. God is holy. He is holy, holy, holy. And that means that he is separate from sinners. The sea here is spoken of as being of glass, like crystal. It's utterly calm. It's not raging. utterly calm and it's a separation because God is holy. His holiness impresses us. And there, in the midst of the throne, around the throne, were four living creatures, full of eyes. And of course, being full of eyes means they can see everything. They look everywhere. And we're told the first was like a lion, the second like a calf, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle. These are the same faces as God's attendants, God's cherubim, in Ezekiel. Except in Ezekiel, each of them had all the faces. But here, there's one face for each one. Now why these particular creatures? Well, the lion is the king of wild animals, the mightiest of beasts. That was the reputation it had among the Hebrews. It's still the reputation the lion has, the king of beasts, the mightiest. The calf. What is the greatest of the domesticated animals? Well, if you asked the Jewish people, they would have said that the ox is the mightiest of domestic animals. When they ploughed their fields, they did it with the might of the ox. If they could afford a couple of oxen, you'd have a pair of oxen, you'd have the plough behind. But the ox was the beast of work on the farm. And so here we have the mightiest of domestic creatures. The third living creature had a face like a man. The pinnacle of God's creation, the last of the creatures to be made. The man who reflects God's image. and the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle, the mightiest of birds. And so they represent, the four of them, God's creation, his whole creation, being the mightiest of each type, each of these four types. And the whole then of God's creation is represented here. We've got the elders who represent the church, and we've got the living creatures who represent the created order, And the living creatures are described as being very like the cherubim, but also somewhat like the seraphim of Isaiah chapter 6. They do not rest day or night saying, holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come. They are declaring what God is like. And they start off with this point, the holiness of God. God is holy, holy, holy. Direct quote from Isaiah 6. And here you have the, again, the Hebrew way of speaking. It's written in Greek, that John is a Jewish man. John thinks in a Hebrew manner. And in Hebrew, if you want to intensify a word, you repeat it. You intensify a verb by repeating it. Holy, holy, holy. God is holy, holy. But God is holy, holy, holy. He is. And the number three in the Hebrew way of using numbers symbolically speaks of perfection. He is perfectly holy. And holiness has, first of all, the thought of being set apart. That's where the sea of glass, like crystal, comes in. God is set apart. But it always has, and increasingly through Scripture, it has this meaning of moral holiness. That God is altogether good. God's goodness is absolutely perfect. God is light, says John, and in him there is no darkness at all. And therefore his holiness shines forth. And he is the Almighty. He is the Almighty. There is no other being who is spoken of as Almighty. There are mighty angels but there is only one Almighty. There can only be one Almighty. All power, all authority belongs to God. God is greater than any created being. He is greater than anything. and he is eternal. He was and is and is to come. There never was a time when he was not and there never will be a time when he shall cease to be. So the creatures who speak of the created order, they praise God's holiness, his might and his eternity. And as they praise, then the church joins in with the praise. The 24 elders fall down before him. This extravagant Hebrew way of showing their praise. They fall on their faces and worship him. And they cast their crowns before the throne. This is a way of saying, all power, all might, all authority that we have, anything the church has, comes from God. And so we cast our crowns before Him, declaring that He is over all, that all things are His. And then we hear their prayers, their worship, and they begin with the fact, you are worthy. Now, our English word, worship, comes from the word meaning worthy. Part of worship, mate, it's always the case that we shouldn't just appeal to the etymology of the word but the reason that the word worship comes to be applied to our praise of God is that part of what we do is declare he is worthy that he is the worthy object of the praise of creation and the implication is nobody else is worthy There's nobody else that we can come to and praise Him. This is one of the reasons why the Bible is absolutely clear that Jesus Christ is God because it tells us to worship Him. And you don't worship a created being. You worship God and Him alone. This is of course our Lord's argument with the devil and the devil comes to him and says bow down and serve me. He says you shall worship the Lord your God only and him only shall you serve. Implication you can worship Jesus because he's God. You can't worship anything created and he is worthy to receive glory and honour and power. He is worthy of all our prayers. There is nothing too high, nothing too marvellous that the church can say of God. Why? Because you created all things. They appeal first of all to this great fact of the creation. You created all things. Maybe you went out this evening and you looked up at the sky and you saw the stars. Going out to the car this evening, I looked up and even in the city, when we have so many lights that drown out so much the starlight, you can look up and see the stars above. And you can look and you can see the created order. You look at the hills, look at the trees. And all these things were made by our God, this vast universe that our minds cannot comprehend. He created all things. He is the Almighty and He has made everything. And He has done so by your will. It's a conscious choice God chose to create. creation doesn't emanate from him by some sort of natural process but God said let there be light and God formed the world as it is he prepared this world By his will all things exist and go on existing. It's not simply that they were created by his will, but that he is in control of everything. And it's this scene that God leads off the revelation to John with. He leads off with this throne room scene. with this praise that brings us to the fact that God is over absolutely everything. That he is the creator and the ruler. And he does this in order to fix in our minds that the world is ruled by God. There is an order over everything. That all created powers are answerable to God. Because we will see in the book as it goes on, we will see that there is evil in the world. We will see opposition. But, as one has titled the commentary on Revelation, the lamb wins. As one commented on the Bible, I've read the end of the book and God wins. God is in control of everything. Our God reigns. And unless we fix that in our minds at the beginning of this exploration of Revelation, we miss the whole point. God's reign calls for the praise of creation and the praise of the Church. And we worship Him and more we put our trust in Him. means that in all the troubles that come. Because another thing to remember with Revelation, Revelation is written to the church that suffers. John tells us, Revelation chapter 1 verse 9, I, John, both your brother and companion in the tribulation, kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ. It was on the island. It is called Patmos for the Word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. Here is a persecuted church leader who is spoken to by God. The Lord Jesus speaks to him as a representative of the church in all its suffering. And in all its suffering then the church needs to hear this word. And this word is not just for one generation, it's not just for those people back then. certainly not just for some people at some point in the future it is for the church in all ages this comfort holy holy holy Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come and we join with the 24 elders saying you are worthy O Lord to receive glory and honor and power for you created all things and by your will they exist and were created