Alright, why don't you, if you brought your Bibles, why don't you open them to the book of Revelation. We're going to continue the study that we've been pursuing for, it's really a study within a study. We've been for nearly a year now, studying what is described in in theological terms as the study of the last things. What is to come in the future of this world? How God's great plan and purpose is going to unfold from this point forward and how it's all going to ultimately culminate in the fulfillment of God's plan. And in the last three months in particular we've been focused on the big themes that are central to our understanding of eternity and that is the reality of hell and the reality of heaven and we've been some four or five weeks now on the study of heaven and what we've been pursuing so far what we've seen so far is that heaven number one is a real place a created place Heaven did not always exist. There was a particular moment in eternity when God chose to create heaven and he created it for specific purposes. The main and primary purpose is that, and we're going to continue to develop this part of which we'll take a look at today, the main purpose of God creating heaven is to be kind of a universal or creation-wide headquarters for his own government. And that heaven, because it's created and because it serves specific purposes in the unfolding plan of God, heaven has already experienced and undergone changes as a place. It's not the same place that it was in the Old Testament. as it is today and as it eventually will be in the ultimate fulfillment of God's plan, which is yet ahead in our study. What we've looked at just recently is what is heaven like today since the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, since Jesus ascended back to the right hand of the Father, since he led captivity captive, as the scripture describes and as we've studied together, and actually increased innumerably the population of heaven presently when he led all of the righteous souls of the Old Testament who had been waiting in a special compartment within the earth throughout the Old Testament time period, led them all through the gates of heaven with him in triumph and in glory. And they're all there with him now and have been, and all the righteous who die now go to immediately be with the Lord in heaven. And they're described, as we saw, as the spirits of the righteous made perfect, meaning that at the moment of death, the final transition of our lives, we experience a transformation, not yet a physical transformation that awaits the final day of history, the great resurrection, but a spiritual change and transformation where all of the elements of our present sinful remnants of the fall are finally eliminated and our spirits are described as being made perfect. So much so, we saw recently that we will, once we reach heaven, never sin again. Praise God. And that heaven is a... as a real place, it's a... it's most basic social structure is that of a city. It's described as a heavenly city. And we've identified that cities are marked by certain things. Cities are population centers, they're centers of business and commerce, and of course they're centers of art, entertainment, culture. And last week we started looking at what it means that there is such a thing as business going on in heaven. There is actual work, occupation in heaven. We're not just, even though there is a reality in a couple of passages describing the presence of harps, the reality of harps in heaven. Heaven is not simply, as some have visualized, an eternal strumming of harps. with absolutely no additional activity, just kind of a nice, beautiful, eternal boredom. It's not that at all. There's something incredibly fresh and exciting and more fulfilling than the most exciting, fulfilling moment we've ever experienced here on earth. And that moment is eternally unfolding in heaven. One moment building on the last. And we've seen, and what we really ended up focusing on last week is that the primary business of heaven is one thing. There was a slogan that I think it was the Ford Corporation had as their corporate advertising slogan in recent years. You've all heard the slogan, seen the ads on TV, I'm sure, and magazines, whatnot, or on the radio. And what they said was about themselves in a self-description of their corporate priorities. They said, quality is what? Job one. Okay, their advertising was quite effective, apparently, because you were able to finish that sentence. Quality is job one. What is Ford, when they chose that advertising slogan for themselves, what are they trying to communicate about themselves as a company? What they're trying to say is, look, we build cars, but their corporate slogan was not, we build cars. Their corporate slogan was, quality is job number one. That means that in all of our efforts to build cars, this is uppermost, and in the back of our minds, this is dominating all of our activity of car building, and that is the quality of the cars that we build. And what we saw last week is that there is job one in heaven, and it's not car building, of course. It is the work, the business of worship. Worship in heaven is job one. And not just, as we talked about briefly at the beginning of our service here this morning, not formal worship or form worship so much, but true and spiritual worship, the kind of worship that the Lord Jesus described that the Father desires, that the Father seeks for, that the Father has specifically called us into His family in order to become. true worshippers, worshippers who worship Him in spirit and in truth. And that is our first and ultimate business in heaven. Now, I want to mention two other aspects of the business of heaven. And again, this is focused on what we will be doing from the moment that our life ends until the end of history, the second coming of Christ, and the great resurrection. This is what the souls or the spirits of the righteous made perfect. are busying themselves with in the presence of God today. Revelation, I ask you to turn there, turn specifically to chapter 6. We've seen that worship is job one, but it's not the only job. There are other activities in heaven besides worship alone. Revelation chapter 6, we'll read from verse 9. This is part of a larger section. I won't take the time to describe the greater context, other than there's a series of seals that are being broken. These are seals on a document that's in heaven, a very critically important document. And as each seal is broken, there is a new wave of God's judgment as He deals with the sin and the unrighteousness of men in the earth. And we're going to read the occurrence of what happens when the fifth seal is broken. The lamb here in verse 9 that's described is, of course, the Lord Jesus, who is breaking these seals. Verse 9, when the lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained. And they cried out with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, will you refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth? And there was given to each of them a white robe, and they were told that they should rest for a little while longer. until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed, even as they had been, would be completed also. Now this is one of those passages, you know, in the book of Revelation that is, it's not easy to grasp, it's not easy to understand the fullness of what's going on here, and I'm not focused on all of what is described here, but I do want to emphasize one particular aspect, and that is that what we see here a glimpse of is the business of heaven. We know that the scene is in heaven because we're dealing here with John's observations that started all the way back at the beginning of chapter 4. If we were to go back and read where this section begins, the apostle John has been caught up by the Spirit of God and in the company of an angel of God into the presence of God in heaven itself. He's been ushered into the throne room of heaven. And he's observing the hub, the center of where all of the business of creation is flowing out from God's throne. And he's making observations and he's called eventually, after his experience, he's going to sit down and he's going to write out these observations in the book that we have, the book of Revelation. But one of the things that he sees here in this section, verses 9-11, as the Lamb of God, as the Lord Jesus breaks the seal on this document in heaven, the fifth seal, what he sees is he sees an altar. And you remember I described a couple of three weeks ago that there is a structure within the larger city of heaven, a smaller structure which is identified as the Temple of God. And it corresponds to the Temple of God that existed in the Old Testament time period here on earth. The heavenly temple, of course, being greater than the earthly temple, but just as real. There's a real temple in heaven. And in the temple on earth, there was, of course, an altar. That altar was a place for what? What took place in the altar in the old covenant temple? Sacrifice. Sacrifice for sin. in a way that even offends our cultural sensibilities. There were animals that were slain and their blood was poured out, and some of those were even burnt as a whole burnt offering in the Lord's instructions to deal with different aspects of the sins of the people. There's an altar in the heavenly temple. Of course, the altar in the heavenly temple functions in a different way than the altar in the temple of the old covenant. Because we know, and this is of course not contradicted in the book of Revelation, it's confirmed, that the one and only sacrifice, the ultimate and true sacrifice that the Lord Jesus made for the sins of mankind on the cross, has been accomplished, therefore there's no longer any sacrifice being offered in heaven. There is only a continual remembrance, a continual honoring of the sacrifice that once and for all was made. And that's why he's even identified in heaven as the Lamb who was slain, and even within this passage. But the altar functions, therefore, in a different way. It's not that after the sacrifice is over, God rips the altar out of the heavenly temple and throws it into the heavenly trash can, so to speak, as though it's no longer needed. The altar still serves a purpose. And here in this circumstance, what we see is that there is underneath the altar a group of souls. Now how this works and what all that detail means, I don't know. If I did, believe me, I'd be glad to describe it to you. This part is kind of mysterious to me. But we do see that the altar still plays a role in the heavenly temple, and that underneath the altar there are gathered specific souls. And those souls are doing something. And what they're doing, in the general sense of what I'm describing is, they're doing business there, in the presence of God. And they're doing business specifically with someone. Who they're doing business with is God Himself. This is the focal point of their activity. Here in this moment, of course, they are worshipping, but it's something even more than just worship, in the sense of singing songs of praise to the Lord. What they're doing is, they're doing the business of what we call intercession. They're praying to the Lord. The Lord sits enthroned upon His throne of glory in heaven, and from His throne decisions are being made that are going to affect history on earth, going to affect what takes place from this moment forward in all of history. And these souls that are described have lived out their lives on earth But their lives have come to an end, and come to an end in a very specific and dramatic way, what we call martyrdom. They've been killed because of their testimony of the gospel, and because of representing the Lord the way they did in the earth. And as a result, they've been given a special location. It's almost like a special seat in heaven. but they're under the altar of God, in close proximity to the throne of God, and while they're there, they're not just silently observing what's going on, they're actively interacting with the Lord Himself as He sits enthroned. And they are crying out to God to make certain kinds of decisions and to do certain kinds of things in the administration of God's kingdom business. Let's read again what they're actually doing. When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the Word of God and because of the testimony which they had maintained. And they cried out with a loud voice. Almost as though they're wanting to be heard over all of the other activity of heaven. Okay? Not that there's like... clamor and competition in heaven like there often is when one person is speaking, and if somebody else were to speak up here, there might be a sense of clamor and competition. I don't think it's like that, and yet there's a significance to them crying out with a loud voice, as opposed to just whispering to the Lord, or as opposed to just speaking in a normal conversational tone. They cry out with a loud voice saying, How long, O Lord? Which is essentially a question that they're asking the Lord. They don't know the answer. They're not sure of what is going to take place from this moment forward in the plans and purposes of God. But they're asking God, please respond. We have a concern in our hearts. And what they're asking for, how long, O Lord, holy and true, will you refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth? Now, they're not asking here, I don't think, for just a general outpouring of God's judgment on every single individual on the face of planet Earth. They're crying out for God's justice to be shown toward those individuals that ended their lives for the sake of the gospel, those who are opponents of the gospel. And they're asking God to do something about these individuals who were in such a position of power and authority on the face of the earth that they were able to end these believers lives simply because they were representing God's word and simply because they were speaking the gospel. And they're asking God not just to, in our kind of watered down Christian cultural perspective of what prayer and intercession before the throne of God is really about, they weren't just asking, Lord, you know how these people have ended our lives and killed us for the sake of the gospel, so I'm just asking you to just bless them. Please just bless them, Lord. Is that what these souls under the altar in heaven now? These are not earthly prayers that are being prayed. These are heavenly prayers. If it were someone on earth praying this way, we might have reason to question and wonder about the spiritual quality of their intercession and their prayer. We might wonder, you know, are these guys going a little bit too far in asking for God to judge these other people? But these are the spirits of the righteous made perfect. There are no sinful influences that are flavoring their intercession and their prayers. Sometimes when we pray on earth, even with the best of intentions, even with the benefit of a Bible study under our belts and understanding of God's ways and purposes, sometimes our best prayers are flavored with a little bit of self-interest. self-centeredness, our own agenda, our own purposes. Here, these individuals have been cleansed of all of those elements and influences. They're the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and they're interceding and crying out for what? Justice to take place in heaven or on earth. See, their intercession, they're praying in heaven. But the focus of their concern is what's taking place on earth. And what that tells me is, if that is uppermost on the agenda, the business of heaven, that intercession should be made for the events that are unfolding on earth, how important should the concept of being involved in the business of intercession be for us here? This is what heaven is concerned to take care of on the day's agenda. And it should be part of everything that we do. Now let's turn from here to Revelation chapter 19. We'll see a second example of this. Revelation 19. I'll read from verse 1. This is a similar and related passage, but it is, in a sense, the viewpoint here is from the other side of the coin, so to speak. The first passage we read was a cry for justice that has not yet been accomplished. God has not yet shown his strong right arm of authority and power in giving justice to the souls that were under the altar and crying out for it. Here, however, this is a prayer of intercession prayed by a particular group in heaven responsibly to something that God has already done. We'll read from 19 verse 1, After these things I heard something like a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, Hallelujah, salvation and glory and power belong to our God. Because his judgments are true and righteous, for he has judged the great harlot, and this is in reference not to a specific individual, but to a specific entity, spiritual entity, for he has judged the great harlot who is corrupting the earth with her immorality, and he has avenged the blood of his bondservants on her. And the second time they said, hallelujah, her smoke rises up forever and ever. And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God, who sits on the throne, saying, Amen, Hallelujah. And a voice came from the throne, saying, Give praise to our God, all you His bondservants, you who fear Him, the small and the great. Then I heard something like the voice of a great multitude, and like the sound of many waters, and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying, Hallelujah, for the Lord our God, the Almighty reigns." Now what's going on here? What's going on is that there are individuals in heaven, spirits of the righteous, made perfect. who are still concerned about what's happening on the earth. And the one passage earlier in the book, we see that they're concerned about something that's not yet happened, and they see spiritually, they discern the need for something to happen. And they're crying out to God in intercession for God to move and act in that particular way. Here, they've witnessed something that has happened, meaning that there is, from our side of course, We're seen through, as Paul describes, we're seen through a mirror darkly. We don't see the activity in heaven other than what's revealed in the words of God's book. But they see what's going on on the earth. The window from their side is like one of those one-way window mirror things that you see on television all the time, where you can see through to what's going on in the room, but whoever's in the room can only see their own reflection. And that's kind of what's going on in the relationship between us. who believe that are here on earth, and those who believe that are in the presence of the Lord in heaven. We can't really see what's going on there, other than the testimony of God's Word. But they see everything that's unfolding here, and they're concerned about it. And they're interceding because of what's going on, or what is yet to go on. And they're praying before the throne of God, for God to act and move in particular ways. And when He does, they respond with words of praise, and thanksgiving, and honor, and glory to His name. The point of all of that is, all of our study of heaven is meant to affect and influence how we live out the rest of our lives here. Like we saw last week, if worship is job one in heaven, we'd better get started in on-the-job training now and not wait for the time that we're there to begin to worship the Lord. And in the same way, what I hope that you see by just these two passages, is the significance and the importance of intercession in the business of heaven. It's something that is one of the few things in all of our lives' activities here that's going to directly carry on into eternity. There are so many things I spend my time doing here on earth that I'll never do once I die and go to be with the Lord. Times of intercession directly carry over. They're a true spiritual priority of my life now. Now, what else? What other business of heaven? I'm just going to focus on a third area. We're not going to delve into this very deeply because I want to save some of this for what is yet to come in our outline. But turn with me, would you, once more to another passage in Revelation, back to chapter four. The third focal point of the business of heaven is, of course, related to the first two. Worship being job one, intercession flowing out of worship and back into worship. And of course, the third business of heaven, and I'm talking about third from the human perspective, because in God's mind and heart, this is really the first thing that He does. But it is flowing out of the worship and the intercession that we are called to do, even in the presence of God, and that is government administration. Chapter 4, verse 1. We've read this passage before in our study. I'd like to rehearse it. And the first voice which I had heard, like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me, said, Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things. Immediately I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne was standing in heaven, and one sitting on the throne." This is the passage I was referring to earlier. This is John the Apostle being caught up in the company of an angel of God, into the presence of God, into heaven itself. He's carried into the heavenly city, the new Jerusalem, the Jerusalem that's above, and he's carried into the temple of God in heaven itself, and into the very throne room of God. And he begins to observe the activity taking place in that throne room. The very first thing that catches his attention is a piece of furniture, an item of furniture. It's a throne. He sees a seat, but in his mind, he understands that as soon as he sees it, it's not just any seat, as though it was a seat just for resting purposes only. It's a seat of authority. It's a seat of government. It's a throne. It's a kingdom-focused seat. And one who's sitting on that throne is, of course, as it describes in verse 3, like a jasper stone and a sardius in appearance. This is just descriptions of glorious emanations. And there was a rainbow around the throne like an emerald in appearance. And then verse 4, and I've emphasized this a few times before, I don't think we can overemphasize this because Revelation 4 verse 4 is one of the most overlooked concepts in all of the studies I've ever heard of heaven, or any of the teachings I've ever heard of heaven. And that is that around the throne were 24 thrones. And upon the thrones I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white garments and golden crowns on their heads." Now, there is good, strong, biblical reason. I'm just going to give you my conclusion without going back and doing all the groundwork to establish this point. There's good, strong, biblical reason to understand that these elders are not angels, but human beings. That these twenty-four thrones that are established around the throne of God, we don't know the exact arrangement, but I imagine it's a circular arrangement around the throne of God. And upon these 24 thrones, there are 24 individuals sitting, just like there's one individual sitting on the central throne, the throne of God, God Himself, the Lord Jesus sitting upon that throne. And now we have 24 thrones arranged around that central throne, 24 individuals who are human beings, spirits of the righteous, made perfect. Why are they sitting on thrones? Is everybody in heaven described as sitting on a throne? The answer is, as many of our biblical issues, yes and no. Not everyone's sitting on these 24 thrones. Only these 24 individuals are. Who are they? I don't know. They're special. I wish I was among these 24. I'm not. Neither are you. Who are they? We just don't have their names. At this point, it's not important to know their names. But they're 24 pretty special individuals. And they deserve to be seated where they are seated. And the only way we can describe that is, of course, they're only there by the grace and mercy of God. Yet, their faithfulness and how they lived out their lives of obedience to God's commands and God's call here on earth. has deserved them, so to speak. It has qualified them to sit in the purposes of God in thrones arranged around His throne. Can you imagine the privilege to be on one of the 24 thrones around the throne of God? That thought alone, if you were just looking for one thought to carry away for your week, to chew on and to meditate on in whatever I would say today, grab hold of that one and think about that. The idea that an individual who lived out their life here on earth is now seated in one of the 24 thrones in closest proximity to the throne of God. And those 24 thrones are thrones, meaning they're seats of authority, they're expressions of the kingdom government of God. And they're sharing a measure of high-level government authority in God's kingdom. Now, I say not all of us are seated in those 24 thrones. In fact, I can confidently say none of us are seated in these 24 thrones. But does that mean we don't have anything to do with thrones in heaven? Is this something only for them? Ephesians chapter 2, we referred to this recently, but let's go back and reread this just to rehearse and understand the overall spiritual principle that guides the concept of us being involved in God's government, not just now, spiritually speaking, but for all of eternity. Ephesians 2, verse 4. This is describing some of the glorious benefits of salvation. But God being rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved, and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Now, we've been spiritually speaking already, just in our present experience, let alone the fulfillment of what this will actually be like when we spiritually make that transition into heaven itself. But we're already described as presently being seated with Christ in the heavenly places. That leads us to the next question of where is Christ seated in the heavenly places. He is seated on that central throne. What that implies is that we are seated with him spiritually speaking, meaning we share the administration of his government. But, as I've described before, there are different degrees of that government in its expression. Just like our government here on earth and within this nation alone has all kinds of different levels to it. Starting at the highest level, the president who is seated in the Oval Office in the White House. on down to the local city council member. And there are many other expressions of government in between. Because the city councilman is not seated in the Oval Office, does it mean that he doesn't bear real governmental authority in our society and in our nation? No. He does bear real authority. He does participate in the government. He does express the authority of the government that he represents and that he serves. And in the same way, biblically speaking, all of us will share in the administration of God's government in heaven, but we'll share in different roles and different appointments at different levels of responsibility. One last passage to just emphasize that for sure we will be participating in this, 2 Timothy chapter 2. 2 Timothy chapter 2, we'll read from verse 8. Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, descendant of David, according to my gospel, for which I suffer hardship. even to imprisonment as a criminal. But the Word of God is not imprisoned. For this reason I endure all things for the sake of those who are chosen, so that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus, and with it, eternal glory. It is a trustworthy statement. If we died with Him, we will also live with Him. If we endure, We will also reign with Him. If we deny Him, He also will deny us. If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself. Remind them of these things, and solemnly charge them in the presence of God not to wrangle about words, which is useless and leads to the destruction of the hearers. Among the several statements that Paul makes of importance here, the one I want to focus on is this statement in verse 12. If we endure, we will also reign with Him. Now, there are many passages in the New Covenant which describe God's plans for His people. And this is one of those statements that describes His future plans. And what's important for us to understand about this is that this is not a statement about what God is going to do with the 24 special individuals that are seated right now on those 24 seats of authority in heaven, and only describing what God's plan is for them. This is God's plan for all of His people. Now, of course, there's a provision that's attached to this, and the provision is, we need to remain faithful, we need to endure, we need to continue on with the Lord for the rest of our lives here on earth. But once our lives end and we are brought into His presence in heaven, and we see the fulfillment and the fullness of what God had planned for us in heaven, what we'll understand immediately is that part of our business, an important, critical part of our business, is government business. You know how it is here in this world. There's kind of a sense in our culture, and I'm going to say this as an example only. Please, if you happen to be in this position, don't take it personally. You know, there's kind of a reputation about government jobs. You know, it's a good thing to have a government job, right? Because they're safe and secure. Because if everything else in society falls, the government's going to continue on. And there will always be the benefits and the privileges of working for the government, the security of working for the government. The only job in heaven is a government job. That's it. You are transitioned into heaven and you're given a job. And your job is to be part of God's government. At what level, and to what degree, and whether you will have authority over others, or others will have authority over you, that's yet to be determined by how we live out our lives here in this world, and by God's chosen reward for our lives here in this world. And we'll, again, talk about a little bit more of the detail of that in the weeks to come. But the point is, you will have work to do. Your job, one, is to worship God as a member of God's royal priesthood. Job 2 is you will continue to pray for the things here on earth until the second coming of Christ, and when all things are going to be radically changed, as we'll talk about. But you'll also have work to do, government work. You'll be exercising authority, and you'll be handling the administrative duties that God assigns for you in heaven. Now, what all that means, we're going to try and develop that a little bit further as we go. But we'll stop here for today. And next week, Lord willing, what we'll do is we'll pick up the third part of what life in the big city is like. And I'm talking about the big city. And that is the culture of heaven. What is the culture of heaven like? So we'll pick up with that, Lord willing, next time. Let's pray. Father God, You have revealed to us the activities of heaven, the life of those who are presently with you in heaven. You've shown us some things about that. You've left much unspoken and unrevealed, but the things you have revealed, I believe, Lord, you mean to change and transform us, to affect us, to influence us, to cause us to live out our days here differently than we would have without that understanding of what is going on there, and how significant, how important those three main activities of heaven are. And I pray, Father God, that you would cause all of us to approach the responsibilities of worship, intercession, and then bearing your authority here on earth in a more serious mind and in a more faithful heart because of what we've seen taking place around your throne. I ask you for that grace for each one of our lives. In the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen. The copyrighted product of Tree of Life Christian Church of Canoga Park, California. 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