And we've been seeing in the book of Revelation all kinds of things that Christ was born to do. I don't know about you, but I have been having a blast going through the book of Revelation. Every book I go through seems to be my favorite book at that time, but this is the favoritest of my favoritists. So if you want to follow along in the majority text, it's on page 14. Otherwise you can follow along in your Bibles. Revelation chapter four. After these things, I looked and behold a door standing open in the heaven. And the first voice that I heard like a trumpet speaking with me saying, come up here and I will show you the things that must take place after these. And immediately I was in spirit and there a throne set in heaven and one sitting on the throne, similar in appearance to a stone Jasper and carnelian. And there was a rainbow around the throne, similar in appearance to an Emerald. And around the throne were 24 thrones. And on the thrones, I saw the 24 elders sitting clothed in white robes and golden crowns on their heads. And out of the throne came lightnings and voices and thunders and seven lamps of fire were burning before his throne, which are seven spirits of God. And before the throne, it was like a sea of glass, similar to crystal. And in the midst of the throne and around the throne were four living beings full of eyes, front and back. The first living being was familiar, similar to a lion. The second living being was similar to a calf. The third living being had a face like a man. And the fourth living being was similar to a flying Eagle. And the four living beings, each one of them having six wings of peace, were full of eyes around and within, and they take no rest day or night saying, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, the Lord God Almighty, he who was and who is and who was coming. And whenever the living beings ascribe glory and honor and thanksgiving to Him who sits on the throne, to Him who lives forever and ever, the 24 elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever, and they cast their crowns before the throne saying, you are worthy, our Lord and God, the Holy One, to receive the glory and the honor and the power because you created all things and by your will they exist. and were created, amen. Father, we thank you for your word and I pray that you would enable us to not only understand it, but to live it out, to have our faith, our hope grow and our love for you and our worship for you to grow as well. So I pray that you would enable me to faithfully preach and each one of us to receive it in our hearts by the power of your spirit. In Jesus name we pray, amen. You may be seated. Well today we're only gonna have time to look at the first five and a half verses that I read through. And the main reason for that is that, is this mic working? Is it not going in and out? Okay. The main reason for that is I need to set the immediate context as well as the Old Testament context for the whole of chapters 4 and 5. If we don't see the context, we're going to have trouble understanding some of the things that are going to be later brought up. If we do not understand these chapters properly, and if you are not absolutely convinced of the direction we're going in chapters 4 and 5, it could lead us to misinterpret the later chapters. What we view, chapters 4 and 5, will either make us view the later chapters with hope, or with hopelessness. It makes a big difference how we understand these chapters. And so we're going to start by looking at the connection with the previous chapter. If you take a look at chapter 3 verse 21, I'll remind you of the amazing promise that he gives there. To the one who overcomes, I will grant to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my father on his throne. Well, chapter four introduces us to this awesome throne of the Father, which Jesus Christ sits upon and which we also are permitted to sit upon if we are committed to being overcomers. And when you understand the incredible sovereignty that that throne represents, it is staggering that we could even approach the throne, let alone to sit upon it. And yet here is John being summoned up to heaven And he is being permitted to approach that throne because he's an overcomer. And he is given a new perspective on life down here on earth. And it's a perspective that has transformed the lives of many saints down through the ages. When you begin to understand and read what the early church men viewed on this this particular chapter here, you can understand why they had a faith that turned the world upside down. I've done a lot of reading in the church fathers and they had a world-conquering faith that turned an entirely pagan empire into what used to be called Holy Christendom is what they used to call it. When they started they were just a tiny minority and yet they were absolutely convinced that the kingdom of heaven would transform the earth and eventually all things would be placed under Christ's feet. What gave them faith to believe that? Well, I think the things that are in this chapter and in chapter 5 gave them such faith. And when you read the church fathers of the first few centuries, you see they had a victorious eschatology. I'll just give you one example, Athanasius. who lived from 296 to 373 AD, was a man of such faith and he wrote a masterful book called On the Incarnation. And he showed that the same Christ who created all things was going to renew and was in the process of progressively renewing all things. It's exactly the same message that I gave last week. And he did not draw his faith from what he saw around him. In fact, from what he saw around him, he could have been very discouraged because he went through persecution. This was before, he lived quite a number of his years before Rome became a Christian empire. And even though he was the Bishop of Alexandria for 46 years, he was banished five times on pain of death if he returned. And he spent 14 years in distant lands or in the harsh deserts of Egypt. On one occasion, a friend said, just give in, just give up, because the whole world is against you. And that's where Contramundum comes from, his famous state. Well, Athanasius Contramundum. Well, Athanasius is against the world. He was not going to back down. He was going to live his life based on what he saw in the scriptures. He did not draw his faith from the old creation that he could see with his physical eyes. He drew his faith from the fact that Jesus was sitting on his throne and he was advancing his victory wherever Christians were willing to live by faith. And to me, it's no wonder that Athanasius and the other fathers of that time turned the world upside down. They really did. It's because they had a world-conquering faith. And it's a faith that is lacking in the modern world. They had a faith to expect great things from God and a faith to attempt great things for Him. Now, there are debates on what the eschatology of some of the church fathers was, but one thing I can tell you for absolute sure, however you label their eschatology, they embraced a victorious eschatology that completely transformed the world. In fact, it drove them to change the world. I cannot say the same about the modern church. However you want to label the modern church's eschatology, it is impotent. They cannot do anything in this society. The eschatology of the last 200 years has made Christians lose the incredible Christian heritage that we have had in Europe, that we had in America, and many times to willfully abandon our Christian heritage. And it's because of three things. They've abandoned, they really have a truncated worldview and have abandoned the rich Reformed worldview. They've got a retreatist faith, and they have an eschatology of defeat. In contrast, the early church fathers, you just read them, church father after church father, they saw themselves as victors, conquerors, overcomers, just like the first three chapters of Revelation describe what we should be. Not all the people in the first century were that way, but he said, that's what I want you to be, conquerors, overcomers. I want you to be victors. They were looking at life from the perspective of these two chapters, chapters four and five, as well as, you know, the first three chapters that we've been looking at. I want to give you a little quote from Hal Lindsay that will give you a little bit of perspective on the modern problem. Criticizing our post-millennialism, he said, no self-respecting scholar who looks at the world conditions and the accelerating decline of Christian influence today is a post-millennialist. And I say, well, that's reversing the chicken and the egg. Why are we declining? It's because we've abandoned post-millennialism. It's why we're declining. It's because we've abandoned a good worldview, and they don't have a faith to take on. They've retreated from culture. It's completely backwards of the way he should be analyzing the problem here. They don't have the viewpoint of the early church fathers. And Chilton, in his book, Paradise Restored, gives a fabulous answer to Lindsay. He said, once upon a time, a courtier must have assured a nervous pharaoh with these words. No self-respecting scholar who looks at world conditions and the accelerating decline of Hebrew influence agrees with Moses. After all, Egypt was the most powerful nation in the world. What chance did Hebrew slaves have against that mighty empire? Let's take another example. What did world conditions look like on the day before the flood? Okay, what were world conditions like on the day before the first Christmas? What were they like after Christmas when King Herod was slaughtering babies in Bethlehem? And wasn't Christian influence in terrible decline on Good Friday? Hal Lindsey and his group of self-respecting scholars have committed one crucial error which undermines their entire system of interpretation. Their attention is focused on world conditions rather than on the authoritative and unchanging promises of God. This fallacy-ridden approach to prophecy has been rightly termed newspaper exegesis, studying current events rather than the Bible for clues to the future. The question is not whether current conditions seem favorable for the worldwide triumph of the gospel. The question is only this, what does the Bible say? As Christians, we know that God is the Lord of history. Our God is in the heavens. He does whatever He pleases. Psalm 115, verse 3. Whatever the Lord pleases, He does in heaven and in earth. Psalm 135, verse 6. If God has said that the world will be filled with His glory, then it will happen and no power in heaven or on earth or under the earth can possibly stop it. And all it takes is a tiny glimpse of the awesome throne room that is being described in this chapter. And you will suddenly realize, hey, there is absolutely nothing upon earth that is any match for the kingdom of heaven. Nothing. So let's take a look at chapter 4 and begin at verse 1. After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in the heaven. Now let me just stop there for a moment. The Greek for standing open is the perfect tense, and in Greek grammar that refers to a past action that has an enduring consequence. So in the past the door was opened and it now enduringly stands open, not just for John, but for all believers to enter for the remainder of time. They enter into this courtroom of heaven every Sunday, according to Hebrews 12, when they worship, at least if they're worshiping in spirit. They come before that throne every time they pray, at least, according to Hebrews 4, if they are praying in the spirit. When we die, we'll be entering into that same throne room of heaven. And so the Greek grammar indicates that the door opened at some time in the past, which means that it was closed before that, right? Logically, it means it was closed before that. So when did heaven open to man? Well, the church father Victorinus represents many when he says it was opened only at the resurrection of Jesus. Prior to Christ's resurrection, no man had ever gone to heaven. It was a closed door to man. In John 3, verse 13, Jesus said, no one has ever ascended to heaven. That's an absolute statement. No one has ascended to heaven. And you might think, well, what about Elijah? Wasn't he caught up into heaven in a fiery chariot? Yes, he was to the first heaven, which is the sky. But you keep reading in that chapter and you see that God disposed of his body in some place on the earth. And the prophets knew it. The prophets were going out searching for his body. They couldn't find it, but they knew that he had not ascended to heaven. Same was true of Moses. His body was buried by God, but all of the saints in the Old Testament went down to the heart of the earth into upper Sheol, which is where paradise used to reside. Now, Sheol had two compartments in the heart of the earth. Lower Sheol was hell, upper Sheol was heaven, and so Sheol in its entirety, even paradise Sheol, was in the heart of the earth. That's why it speaks of people, the saints in the Old Testament, going down to Sheol. And that's why it speaks of when Samuel came to visit Saul and he spoke to Saul, it says, he came up out of Sheol, out of the earth. OK, but a massive change had happened with Christ's resurrection. We saw last week that his resurrection was the beginning of the renewal of the whole creation. So Saint Athanasius in his book on the incarnation points out that with the resurrection, Christ began the process of renewing every aspect of the old creation that he had made. Now, it may take thousands and thousands of years, but it has already begun. It began with Christ's body, which was what? It's a new creation. It's a glorified body. It's a part of the new creation. And then it continued with Jesus preparing a brand new place in heaven for them. Isn't that what Jesus said? I go to prepare a place for you. It hadn't been prepared prior to Christ's resurrection, but after his resurrection, he prepares a place for them, and he takes the saints out of lower Sheol, and he takes paradise to be in heaven. And in 70 AD, we find in chapter 12, revelation that there's this great war that transpires which is another indication 70 AD is a big pivotal time in history so there's this huge fight between Michael and his archangel his angels he's an archangel and Satan and all of his angels and Satan is cast out of heaven cast down to the earth and Heaven is cleansed. No longer will demons and Satan ever have access to heaven. And so there is a renewal process in the heavens that takes place there. And now God's will is perfectly done in heaven. But there is this ongoing process, according to revelation of a new creation until finally on the last day of history, there is going to be a complete renewal, even of the physical creation. No more dinosaur bones under the ground. Everything's going to be completely made brand new. But from the resurrection of Jesus on, heaven's door was open. So back to verse one. After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in the heaven, and the first voice that I heard, like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, come up here, and I will show you the things that must take place after these. John is invited into the very throne room of God, and he identifies the one who was speaking with him as being, he says here, the first voice that I heard, like a trumpet speaking to me. Well, when you look at chapter one, verse 10, where the first voice that he heard sounding like a trumpet that was speaking to him, there he is self-identified as the Alpha and the Omega and Jesus. So why didn't he say Jesus here? It would have been easier to say Jesus than to say the first voice that spoke like a trumpet to me. Well, Yeats gives a couple of suggestions in his commentaries. And he says, first of all, he suggests that it connects this vision stylistically with chapter one and indicates to us that the same Jesus of chapter one who walks in the midst of the church, of the candlesticks, who cares for the church, who loves the church, is the same Jesus who judges the nations and pours out his wrath upon them. He has both a protective as well as a destructive function. And then secondly, it connects this voice with the voice that was given on Mount Sinai when the law of God was given. And it uses the same term. It was a voice that sounded like a trumpet. that gave the law, and it shows that there is a continuity with the law of God. In any case, Jesus is both protector of the new Israel and the judge of the nations. And then Jesus says, I will show you the things that must take place after these. Now the word must is a divine imperative. The events that he is going to be showing to John in this book are events that will take place. Why? Because God's will governs history. It's not Satan who governs history. It is God who governs history, and that should give us comfort. And I want you to notice, too, that there is historical progress that is mentioned. This chapter describes something that will occur after chapters 1 through 3. Now, many people deny that, but I think it's just so clear here. He says, I will show you the things that must take place, what? After these. In other words, after these things that I've just finished describing in chapters one through three. Now, later on, there will be a couple of recapitulations back to the life of Christ to show the legal basis for what's going to be happening after. But the bulk of the rest of the book is happening after 66 AD, but certainly chapters 4 and 5 occur after 66 AD, or if you believe the book was written in 64 or 65. Okay, it's going to be shortly after that, but it's just a two or three years quibble. But at a minimum, Chapters 4 through 5 occur after chapters 1 through 3 are given. Now verse 2 continues, and immediately I was in the Spirit. This refers to John being controlled prophetically by the Holy Spirit. It's not talking about John being bodily caught up to heaven, but by vision he was caught up to heaven just as he was in chapter 1 when he was in the Spirit there. Verse two continues, and there a throne set in heaven and one sitting on the throne. Now this is very clearly referring to God getting ready to make judgment and to act. And the question is, when does this action take place? And this is where Beal's careful work is very, very helpful. Beal shows beyond any shadow of a doubt that all of chapters four through five are patterned point by point in exactly the same order after Daniel chapter seven verses nine through 12. And I wish I had put those points on the back of your outline, ran out of time last night. But Beal gives 14 very, very clear connections. I'm not gonna spend the amount of time that Beal does on those connections, but I do want us to at least read that. So if you would turn with me to Daniel seven, and we're gonna go back and forth between these two chapters a little bit. And this whole unit is a self-contained vision. Daniel 7, verses 9 through 12. I watched till thrones were put in place, and the Ancient of Days was seated. His garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head was like pure wool. His throne was a fiery flame, its wheels a burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him. A thousand thousands ministered to him. Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him, and the court was seated, and the books were opened. I watched then, because of the sound of the pompous words which the horn was speaking, I watched till the beast was slain and its body destroyed and given to the burning flame. As for the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away, yet their lives were prolonged for a season and a time." Now, if this is the background to Revelation 4 through 5, and if it structures those chapters, as I and many commentaries believe, then this clearly sets the time limits within which chapters 4 through 5 can occur. This is really important to understand. There's a lot of background material, but if we're going to understand the rest of the chapters in the coming weeks, we've got to understand this. Look at Daniel 7 verse 11. Since verse 11 indicates that the beast, who is Nero, would be killed as a result of the court being seated, then the court has to have its meeting before Nero dies, right? Before, while he's still alive, right? Well, he died in June of 68 AD, so this must take place before that. Now, there's another clue as to timing in verse 12. Daniel 7, verse 12. As for the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away, yet their lives were prolonged for a season and a time. Nero wasn't the only bestial emperor or ruler in the first century. And even though their dominion was legally given to Jesus, they continued to exist for a season and some time after that season. So this indicates there's some historical history that transpires, during which time paganism continues to triumph within the Roman Empire, which is within the time of the fourth beast of Daniel. Now that means that the fulfillment of this passage has to be before the Christianization of Rome. Because there's still bestial empires for a season and a time after that court meets. So it's a second confirmation that this is a first century fulfillment. It happens before Nero dies. It happens before the Christianization of Rome. Now back to Revelation. Revelation 4 gives yet another hint of timing. Verse 1 says, I will show you things which must take place after this. So the seating of the heavenly court in verses 4 through 5 must take place after 66 AD. It's not talking about 30 AD, as some commentaries take it. It's not talking about the end of history, as other commentaries take it. He says, I will show you things which must take place after this. Now it's so clear to me that it astonishes me there are so many amillennialists and premillennialists who ignore these time clues. That phrase narrows things down to an extremely tight time frame. As I mentioned earlier, Nero dies in June of 68 AD. This book is written somewhere between 64 and 66 AD. I think it was 66. Well, if Daniel 7 says it occurs before June of 68 AD, this occurs, it has to have been occurring after chapters 1 through 3 are written. then you've only got a one and a half year time frame. And I think logically you have to say that chapters four through five occur right before the seven years of wrath that God is going to be pouring out from 66 through 73 A.D. It's going to start within two months of this being written. And I believe, We can demonstrate that elsewhere, but at least you've narrowed it down. It's clearly for a century. Now, I bring this issue up of timing because there are some who think Christ only ascends his throne at the future second coming. They think that when Jesus tells John, come up here, it is a symbol, a symbolic reference to the rapture of people's bodies sometime in the future at the second coming of Christ. It's very, very typical of dispensational premillennialism. But let me show how that cannot be. This text says nothing about Jesus coming to the earth. On the contrary, he stays in heaven and he asks John to come up to him. Whereas at the second coming, Jesus is gonna come from heaven down to the earth. Okay, so it's totally different directions that he's talking about. And then secondly, this verse says nothing about the church getting raptured physically. It is John who comes up to heaven, not the church, and he comes up to heaven by vision, by being in the Spirit, not by having his body raptured. And the clear dependence on Daniel 7 shows that it takes place in the first century. Okay, so everyone likes to know, so what? What's the difference? What difference should this make? It makes a huge difference. It means that Jesus rules in history, not just at the end of history. Jesus judges in history, not just at the end of history. Jesus protects His church in history, not just at the end of history. It means Jesus is advancing His victory in history, not just at the end of history. It means His throne gives the answers right now to the needs that we have on planet Earth, not just waiting for answers at the end of history. That's what difference it makes. It completely changes your whole interpretation of the book. Okay, if chapters four through five have nothing to say about the church age, which most modern commentaries say, not the old ones, the old ones are much more reliable, but most modern commentaries say, no, no, this is all in the future. If these chapters have nothing whatsoever to do with the church age, why even study them? Why study them? It just satisfies some idle curiosity about the future, which has zero impact upon our lives right now. But on our interpretation, it revolutionizes our lives. It is very practical, and we're going to see many, many practical benefits from this timing issue in later chapters. Now, there is one little word in verse 2 that Beal says distinguishes this throne, or at least the function of this throne, from God's eternal throne, and that is the word set. A throne was set up sometime after the visions of chapters 1 through 3 were given. Beal shows that this is the word used in Daniel 7 when it says, I watched till thrones were put in place, same in the Greek translation, same word, till they were set up, thrones were set up. and the Ancient of Days was seated. So God's throne was put in place or set up in 66 AD to do something, and he sat down on that throne in 66 AD to do something. Now Daniel refers to many other thrones, and so does Revelation 4, because the saints are gonna be entering into this judgment as well against the beast. It is, after all, a courtroom. But let's go back again to Daniel 7, and let's get a little bit more context. We've already read in verses 9 through 12, we've shown how the setting up of the courtroom takes place somewhere around 66 AD. Now, what is the legal basis for that? Well, he describes the legal basis as having taken place in verses 13 through 14. When Jesus ascended to the right hand of the Father in 30 AD, he was legally given all of the nations. He was legally given the kingdom. And so those verses show the legal basis for everything that had been done, but that is really true of everything that Jesus did. There is a legal basis for it in 30 A.D., there is a progressive application of it throughout history, and then there is a final manifestation of the last parts of it on the last day of history. In any case, what I want you to look at right now is verses 15 through 28. It goes back to the same time period in 66 AD and talks about a deadly wound given to the beast, gradual Christianization of the whole world, and we're going to pick up at verse 19. Then I wish to know the truth about the fourth beast, and remember the fourth beast is Rome, which was different from all the others, exceedingly dreadful, with its teeth of iron and its nails of bronze, which devoured broken pieces and trampled the residue with its feet. And the 10 horns that were on its head, and the other horn which came up, before which three fell, namely that horn which had eyes and a mouth which spoke pompous words, whose appearance was greater than his fellows, I was watching, and the same horn was making war against the saints and prevailing against them." So the beast in this situation is winning. He's prevailing against the saints, and this is a reference to the Great Tribulation against the Christian Church from 64 through 68 AD. So the beast is prevailing against them during that time until the Ancient of Days came and a judgment was made in favor of the saints of the Most High, and the time came for the saints to possess the kingdom. There is something very significant about that seven-year period, 66 through 73 AD. It was a pivotal point for the saints making progress in history. Continuing to read in verse 23, Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be a fourth kingdom on earth, which shall be different from all other kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, trample it, and break it in pieces. The ten horns are ten kings who shall arise from this kingdom. and another shall arise after them. He shall be different from the first ones and shall subdue three kings. He shall speak pompous words against the Most High, shall persecute the saints of the Most High, and shall intend to change times and law. Then the saints shall be given into his hand for a time and time and half a time." Now that's three and a half years in which Rome persecuted the church. Israel had started persecuting them earlier, but Rome's persecution went from 64 through 68 AD, three and a half years. Okay, exactly. Then something in heaven happens between 66 and June of 68 AD, and verse 26 talks about that. But the court shall be seated and they shall take away His dominion to consume and destroy it forever. Then the kingdom and dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heavens shall be given to the people, to the saints of the Most High. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey Him. So 30 A.D. was when Jesus legally earns the kingdom. 68 A.D. is when Rome is judged and died. Now, we've mentioned that in the past that Rome was split into three parts. It did die. In fact, all of the Roman historians say it died. That's the word that they use. So it died. There was massive destruction, famines, earthquakes, wars, disease and other afflictions upon the empire. And then the book of Revelation says that God willed for the beast to revive for a period of time. It's a fairly short period of time, but it does revive for a period of time. But that destruction of Rome in a day, it was like immediate for the next one and a half years, Rome was pretty much dead, showed that Jesus Christ is the Lord over all of the nations and he can do anything that he wants with them any time that he pleases. And 70 AD then is a transition point when nation after nation, almost immediately, begins to be converted. Prior to that, individuals getting converted, but after 70 AD, nations beginning to get converted until finally in the 300s AD, Rome as an empire becomes a Christian empire. And that was not even the end. That was the beginning of similar judgments and advancements of God's Christ's kingdom, as Revelation shows. So back to Revelation. Now we're gonna start flying. Back to Revelation. The next verses give the character of Christ's judgments and of His kingdom. And really, it's amazing how much information is crammed into just a few symbols. First comes the throne being likened in appearance to two stones. And the rainbow around the throne being likened to a third stone. Verse three says, similar in appearance to a stone, jasper and carnelian. And there was a rainbow around the throne, similar in appearance to an emerald. Beal in his commentary says, these stones collectively represent God's sovereign majesty and glory since they appear in Old Testament theophany scenes in which divine glory is manifested and because they are directly linked to God's glory in Revelation 21, verses 10 through 11, and verses 18 through 23. So when you look at the Old Testament passages that he cites, and I'll put some of these into the footnotes on the web, but when you look at those passages, you see over and over that it connects these stones as symbols of God's majesty, His dominion, and His glory. And Jasper has mentioned first because it is the most explicitly connected with God's glory in the scripture, but also because of its purple color, the color of royalty. Now, Carnelian is better translated as Sardius, just like the new King James does. But really, either way that you take it, those stones, if you look at the two stones that are underneath the jasper, that's Sardius. But Carnelius looks almost identical, almost identical to that. So both purple and red were the colors of royalty in the ancient world, and those two stones are therefore most appropriately connected to the throne itself. But it wasn't just God that was connected to those stones. The second thing that the Old Testament connects with those stones is God's people as they reflect God's glory and as they take dominion on his behalf. So it's still glory and dominion, but it could be representing man's glory and dominion as God's representative. For example, the high priest was supposed to wear a breastplate that had 12 stones, each stone representing a different tribe of Israel, and that's in Exodus chapter 28. Now Sardius was the first stone, and Jasper was the last stone that was listed on the breastplate, and so John is listing the first and the last as a shorthand way of saying, all of Israel. Now all stones are mentioned in chapter 21, but here he's doing the first and the last to say, okay, it's really all the stones that we're talking about, but our focus with these two stones is on royalty, on dominion, on majesty, on glory. There's one more thing that those stones are associated with. The third thing that the Old Testament explicitly ties these together with is the Garden of Eden. Ezekiel 28, 17 through 19, uses these stones to speak of the dominion that was lost in the fall. So it speaks of the rebellion of Satan, of Adam, and of Eve, and their attempt to replace God's dominion, majesty and glory, with a counterfeit majesty, dominion, and glory. So all three groupings of passages in the Bible tie These stones together with God's glory and kingdom either being lived out or being rebelled against by man. So the fact that God's throne was characterized by those three stones points to a restoration of the glory and the majesty of the kingdom and the dominion that Adam lost. Now I also want you to notice that there was a rainbow around the throne. was always a symbol of the Noahic Covenant, and there are at least four ideas that are always associated with that. The first idea associated with Noah's rainbow was that there was a new world that God would advance. So that's very, very appropriate, because Christ is making a new world, right? Second idea is that it represents judgment tempered by mercy. The whole world was judged under Noah. Flood destroyed everything, right? There was mercy shown to Noah as well as to the creation as a whole. Well, that is what Jesus is going to do in the new covenant. He will judge rebels like Israel and Rome and he'll protect his people and he'll create a new world in which dwells righteousness. The third thing that the rainbow reminds us of is that God is always faithful to his covenant. It's precisely God's faithfulness that requires judgment and that requires mercy. And then the fourth thing that the rainbow reminds us of is that God's covenant with Noah was universal. It speaks of God's judgments going out where? To the whole world. And where does his mercy go and his grace goes? To the whole world. So a rainbow really is a beautiful symbol of the beginnings of Christ's kingdom. Now, if you look in your bulletins, you'll see that there is something very unusual about this rainbow. it's green usually rainbows have seven different colors and sometimes if your eyes don't adjust you may only see four or five but there there's a gradation through a prism as it were but this is a rainbow like you've never seen before it's the color of emerald and you'll see the emerald stone is green there So commentaries say it's probably seven shades of green going from very, very light into a dark, lush green. Now this would correspond to the beginnings of the kingdom where the kingdom is so hazy that it's even difficult to see that part of the rainbow. and then growing over time into a lush, dark green. In any case, the color green emphasizes the mercy of God, the newness of God, the growth of His kingdom. Now verse four shows that God's people are involved in this whole process just like they were predicted to be in Daniel 7. It says, and around the throne were 24 thrones, and on the thrones I saw 24 elders sitting, clothed in white robes and golden crowns on their heads. And I want you to notice it wasn't just 12 elders. This is not just a New Testament church, okay? This is composed of 12, and he didn't say priests. A lot of commentaries confuse this with the 24 priestly courses in the Old Testament. It's elders because elders represent the people. So it's 12 elders representing the people of the Old Testament. And another 12 elders representing the people of the New Testament. And that makes a double witness against God's enemies. Two 12s, and yet showing a unity of the whole church. And then these elders are around the throne because they're part of the court that's going to be bringing judgment, calling down judgments upon God's enemies. These are called thrones because it's more than just judgments. There's also rule that is involved. Overcomers rule we saw last week while they're on earth. They're going to continue to rule even after they die in heaven, because our whole life is bound up in Jesus and everything that He does. It also says they're clothed in white, representing their purity in Christ. Praise God, when we get to heaven, we will not have any sin to deal with. It'll be perfectly sinless. They're also said to have crowns on their head, and the word for crowns is stephanos, so it's not The kind of crown that a king would have on his head, it's a victor's crown. This is the kind of crown that they would give to an athlete when he won the games, or they would give to a general when he won a victory, or sometimes it was just given to honor. But these crowns represent the victory of the saints. Even though they died, they died as victors. They were crowned with a crown and the crown was of gold, showing not only royalty that they are kings, but showing the incredible value that Jesus gives to them. And in the first three chapters, Jesus had several times promised such crowns, such garments of total purity, such rule to all who overcame. Chapter 2, verse 10, chapter 2, verses 26 through 27, chapter 3, verses 4 through 5, 11, 18, 21. Anyway moving on verse 5 and out of the throne came lightnings and voices and thunders and seven lamps of fire were burning before his throne which are seven spirits of God now can you imagine if you are on one of those thrones around the throne of God and you're hearing these thunderings and you're seeing this fire emanating out of God's throne and lightnings flashing all around it'd be pretty unnerving wouldn't it and Yet they don't seem to be unnerved at all, these elders. Why? Well, chapter 5 explains that. We won't get into it, but they're secure in Christ, totally secure in the face of God's judgments. And they realize everything they have is from Christ. That's why they lay their crowns down before Christ's feet. It's an acknowledgment. Hey, Lord, I thank you that you've honored me. But really, the honor goes to you because everything I've done comes from your strength. In any case, this incredible power that was erupting, and get this, it was erupting before judgments had even been given yet, shows that a divine storm is brewing and about to break forth on his enemies. Now the enemies on earth are utterly unaware of the danger that is brewing, but it is there. It's just unleashed. It's not yet unleashed. Excuse me, yeah, it is unleashed. No, it's not unleashed. Ready to get unleashed, okay. I'm getting my uns and things backwards. But the seven lamps that are burning before his throne are described as the seven spirits of God. Now he's not saying that the Holy Spirit is divided up into seven parts. It's a symbol of the fullness of the Holy Spirit. So the fullness of the Holy Spirit is in the candlesticks. Now in chapter one, we saw that the candlesticks represent the church, right? So here is the fullness of the Holy Spirit coming into the churches and here are the Lamps are burning so brightly that all that can be seen is the flame. You can't even see the candlesticks. It's the flame of the Holy Spirit. And that should be our desire, to have the candlestick fade into the background and the fire of the Holy Spirit shine wherever He wants to shine. And where does He shine? He shines on the throne of the Father. He wants all glory going to the Father. He doesn't shine on us. He shines on the Father. But in any case, without the Holy Spirit indwelling the church and lighting them on fire, they are no match for the world. But when the Holy Spirit is poured out upon the church, suddenly the churches have standing before God in the heavenlies. And we're going to be throughout the book seeing there is this interchange between the earthly church and the heavenly church. So when we're filled with the Holy Spirit, we have standing before the throne of God. We partake of the heavenly powers that this chapter describes. When the church responds to the Spirit's promptings, the church operates from their authority on the throne of heaven. And one of the promptings that the Spirit gives is for us to look to the Father. Where are these lamps said to be burning? It says they're burning before the Father's throne, right? They're illuminating the throne. They're showcasing the Father in all of His splendor. And that in turn makes us want to worship. One of the preeminent functions of the Holy Spirit in a believer's life is to draw our hearts out to worship God the Father. And the worship that's given later on in this chapter and in chapter Well, all of the chapters later on is incredibly awesome. I want my worship to be more and more characterized by the worship that I see in Revelation, but that's only possible as we're daily infilled by the Holy Spirit. Everything in this book, though, is designed to give glory and honor to God. Jesus points to the Father, the Spirit points to the Father. Now, verse 6 continues, and before the throne, it was like a sea of glass similar to crystal. There are two other passages where this throne before a crystal clear sea are mentioned, and both of them are connected with true believers leaving a nation that is under judgment. Exodus 24, verse 10 says that after the exodus of Israel out of Egypt, And just before they're given the law at Mount Sinai and constituted as a nation, the leaders of Israel meet with God, including the 70 elders. And all of a sudden, they can see heaven opened, and they see exactly the same scene that John sees. They see this throne, and it's on a sea that is crystal clear. The other example is when People like Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, you know, they're cast out of Israel. They're in Babylon. Babylon is Sodom. It's Egypt. It's now treated as not the people of God. Did I say Babylon? I mean, Israel that was left behind was Babylon, Egypt. They're not treated as the people of God. And the Israel that was in exile in Babylon, they constitute the new Israel. And in Ezekiel 1, you've got exactly the same thing. Here's Ezekiel seeing this throne room on high and a crystal clear scene. So both of those passages show significant covenantal turning points of judgment and redemption. And they set the mood for what God is about to do in this book. There's an exodus, this time out of Israel. But the difference between this description and those two Old Testament descriptions is that in the Old Testament, the saints, if you can just imagine this huge glory cloud, and it's like a tornado, but if you were to go into the inner part of that tornado and look up, That's where the Old Testament saints are seeing this by vision. They're looking up through the glory cloud and they see the sea of glass and the throne up there. In Revelation, he's up there, he's looking down on the sea of glass. There's a big difference. Here's how Chilton words it. The throne is seen from two different perspectives. Whereas Saint John is standing in the heavenly court itself, looking down upon the sea of glass, which corresponds in regard to temple furniture, to the laver, also called a sea in Exodus 30. Ezekiel is standing at the bottom of the glory cloud, looking up through its cone, and the sea at its top appears as the blue firmament above him. But what's common to all of the passages is that this symbolizes the fact that God is transcendent and He is in complete control. Vic Reasoner correctly states, thus this sea symbolizes the transcendence of God. No matter what upheavals are occurring on earth, God sits above the strife and this sea is always calm. From the throne, all history is crystal clear. Now we haven't even gotten to the fun parts of this chapter yet. This is all introductory material, but you look at the worship later on. It's just it's just fabulous, fabulous stuff. But what I want to do right now is I want to end with some practical applications of what difference all of this makes from these first five and a half verses. The first application is that the timing of verse one shows that the toughest times of world history are over. We live in the time of the kingdom. We live in the time when Jesus is winning more and more people to himself and the time when every believer has access to the powers of heaven, something only a handful of saints in the Old Testament had. In fact, Jesus said that John the Baptist was the greatest of the Old Testament prophets, but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John the Baptist. That's phenomenal to even think about. Jesus said, you're surprised by all the works that I'm doing here? He said, you're going to be doing greater works than I have done. Now that in itself just seems scary. It seems astounding. And yet he said, you'll do greater works than I have done. Why? Because I'm going to my father. The time of the kingdom is a transitional period that we really need to honor. Various scriptures say that the believer can experience miracles that only prophets in the Old Testament were able to experience. That ought to be an encouragement. We live in exciting times. Yes, there are difficulties, but if they are faced with the faith that the early church had, we can overcome our modern difficulties too. So that timing alone is an encouragement. Second, John Kelvin and his, I think it was his institute, so I got this out of, John Kelvin refers to this verse and he said that the early church very self-consciously saw Christ's invitation to John to come up here as an invitation for all Christians to ascend to heaven to worship and to feed on Christ and to receive strength for our daily walk. Now why would the early church say that? Why would Calvin say that when it was only John who was called up there and he was only called up in vision? And Calvin and others would point out that the reason is the tense of the verb. It's a perfect tense. It was opened, and it enduringly stands open for believers for all time. So we've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, and we need to have the faith to go through those open doors and access our spiritual bank account. Third, The definitive solutions to our problems do not lie in this creation. Now you might think, you know, we could win the battles here in America if only the media would be on our side, or if only we had more money, or if only we had more political clout, or if only we had better connections, or on and on. And we say, no. The solutions to our problems do not lie in this creation. They lie in heaven's throne room. The definitive solutions to the problems lie in what Caird's commentary calls the military war room at supreme headquarters. We have access to command central. And as the church prays for God's judgments and mercies to be unleashed, Later chapters show that the thunderings, the lightnings, the other storm sounds that were brewing in heaven suddenly come down to earth and turn this earth upside down. Have there been times in history where God said, okay, I'm going to honor the faith of people and I'm going to change your culture upside down? Yeah. Just look at America, the first and the second great awakenings. Look at how horrible, horrible, horrible things were before the first great awakening. And almost overnight, God changed things around. You look at Nineveh. God honored the faith and the repentance that He saw there. And Jesus said that that conversion of that entire city, every man, woman, and child of that entire city was a genuine conversion. Can God do it? Yes, He can. If the church will have faith. And so until Christians are absolutely convinced that heaven's throne room is the answer to politics, to evangelism, to war, to everything else, we are not going to make the progress that the early church made. The early church for the first 10 centuries made astounding progress, sweeping across Europe, astounding progress. We've made astounding regress. Why? Because we're lacking what they had. We have got to be convinced that heaven's throne room is the answer to everything. We cannot be imitating the Republicans when we go into politics. We got to be looking to the throne room of heaven. And it's not escapism, by the way, when we look to heaven. Jesus says, set your mind on things above. Remember we saw last week that Colossians goes on to talk about how setting your mind on things above transforms everything on earth. Your marriage relations, your children's relations, everything on earth. And so it's not escapism, it's the direction of the invasion. It's heaven invading earth. That's the point. Okay. Fourth, if the thrones of this chapter are the thrones of Daniel 7, which they certainly are, then it means that the court has already started meeting in session and we can present our problems to the king of the universe. And that's exactly what Jesus commanded us to do in the parable of the unfortunate widow. He said, okay, there's an unjust judge who finally with pestering gives justice but I'm not that way and God is not that way if you go to the throne room of heaven you will get justice speedily but he warned you have to do it in faith if you don't have faith it's not going to happen So when we approach heaven and we ask for vindication, we ask for justice, he will give it. And so court is in session, our judge is always ready, and he is always just, ready to hear our case. Now fifth, the symbols show that God is sovereign over every aspect of life. Though his throne is in heaven, It rules over earth. And I think this truth has to grip our hearts if we're going to successfully face the troubled, difficult times that we're going to be facing in the next few years. Is God sovereign over sickness? Yes. Is God sovereign over your finances? Yes. Is God sovereign over politics? Yes. You know, Obama is not the sovereign of earth. God is the sovereign of earth. Amen? And we need to have a faith that reflects that. Six, pagans may be utterly unaware of the storm that is brewing in verse 5, but infinite power is available to take our conquest of Canaan. Nothing is a match for heaven. And if the church would humble itself and pray and turn from its wicked ways, God would heal our land. Now God's not healing our land right now because the church is not turning from its wicked ways. It is antinomian. It doesn't have faith. It has a truncated worldview. None of those things honor God. But if the church would change around, God would heal our land. We would see things turned upside down. In fact, I believe God is using humanistic organizations and statism and other problems to discipline the church and bring the church to have her focus back on the throne room of heaven once again. It takes faith to recognize what is happening and to respond appropriately. So which side of the brewing storm will we be on? Its destruction or its blessing? Seventh and lastly, though we didn't have time to get to the awesome worship of the second half of the chapter, the Spirit lights the way for us to see the Father's glory in worship. Ask the Spirit every time you pray, Father, show me by your Spirit your glory. I want to learn how to pray. I want to learn how to worship. I want to see your glory. Ask the Spirit to give you the kind of worship that this passage goes on to describe. Ask Him to light your path. And may God receive the glory from our lives. Amen. Father, we thank You for Your Word and the challenges that it gives, but also the encouragement that it gives. And help us to be a people of faith, to have a conquering faith. You have said that Now everyone who is born of God overcomes the world, and this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith. Father, we want our faith fixed on You, Your provisions. You have blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. Teach us, Father, how to lay access to that bank account and how to live our lives moment by moment in light of Your throne room. Bless this your people, Father, to be victors, to be conquerors, to be overcomers. And we'll be sure to give you the praise and the honor and the glory. In Jesus' name, amen.