Text: Revelation 4:1-11

My purpose for this message: Inspire worship by presenting God as the King of Kings and in ultimate control of your life and events.

Delivered: July 18, 2010

Can’t Help But Worship

PRAY.

Sometime within the last couple of weeks, in Boston a thief snuck into the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, broke into a glass case, and made off with supposedly a piece of wood from Jesus’ cross.

Church member Nicole Thomas is livid.  “You don’t do things like that.  You don’t steal from a church… You’re going to go to hell for that.” 

Chris Marinello who tracks stolen art for the Art Loss Register agreed.

“There are ecclesiastical collectors out there and something like this could have been stolen to order.  There are just certain things you're going straight to hell if you steal and this is one of them.”

If a stolen splinter sends you straight to hell, imagine the express train you must get put on for something like murder!

Today we’re going—not straight to hell, but straight to heaven.  READ Revelation 4:1-11. 

 

I will show you what must take place after this (v.1).  Revelation 4 and 5 introduce the world-rocking events that John will have to describe in chapters 6-19.  These two chapters are meant to comfort readers who may be alarmed at the apparent chaos that’s on the horizon.  In effect, God is reminding his children—first, of His sovereign control over men and events, and second, that the glorious future He has prepared for them makes—as Paul said, any current sufferings of little consequence in comparison (Romans 8:18). 

What happens when you get a glimpse into heaven?  It’s been said that these verses were George Frederick Handel’s inspiration for writing The Messiah the oratorio he wrote in 22 days.  The apostle Paul said that not only was his vision of heaven “great”, but it surpassed greatness.  Ezekiel fell facedown.  Isaiah cried out in fear, wondering how an unholy man like him could get a glimpse of the holy without paying the consequences.  How might seeing heaven affect you? 

 

1.      Sensory Experience

(NOTE: John’s “ascent” to heaven was not a preview of the church’s rapture as some say, Christians being whisked away to heaven.  It’s simply John getting a breathtaking look at the operations center of the universe, but has nothing to say about the church’s arrival there.)

John was “in the Spirit” which means this was a vision, that he didn’t actually leave Patmos.  The place he saw was what Paul called the “third heaven” (2 Corinthians 12:2).  It’s not the heavens where the birds fly, or higher where the sun, moon and stars live, this is where God lives and works.  There John sees a throne with someone’s sitting on it, but either he doesn’t see a physical presence on it or he’s unable to describe what he sees (not ‘til v.11 does he say what readers assume: it’s God).  John can only say that he “had the appearance of jasper and carnelian.”  In harmony with Psalm 104:2 which says that God wraps himself with light you would put on clothes.

The best Carnelian/sardian gemstones come from India and vary in color from fire-orange to brownish red; and you can’t see through them.  Jasper usually looks a lot like Carnelian in color and it isn’t see-through either.  But in Revelation 21:11 when John compares the brilliance of the New Jerusalem to jasper, he says it’s “clear as crystal”.  Jasper is a member of the quartz family, so perhaps we should understand John was just trying to describe clear rays whose edges are tinged with color.  Remember, John’s vocabulary is too limited to do a good job of describing what he’s seeing in heaven.  The best he can say about the one on the throne is that he had this appearance. (4:3)

God was framed by a half-circle of green-hued light; a rainbow resembling an emerald (3).  Again, John’s groping for words.  A perfectly smooth and vast surface like clear glass was “before” the throne (6).  That probably means it was beneath it, spreading out from there like a see-through floor.

In front of the throne seven separate lamps blazed with fire; this is the Holy Spirit, which the NIV translates as the seven spirits of God (cf.Rev.1:4, 3:1; 5:6)—but probably is better translated as NLT does, the “sevenfold Spirit of God”.  Since seven is the number of perfection and completeness it shouldn’t be surprising that it is applied to the divine Spirit.  And since He is Spirit and not limited by a human or any other kind of form, there’s no reason He can’t take on a form—or multiple forms such as 7 blazing lamps.

And like being in the heart of a storm, lightening from the throne crackled and flashed, accompanied by the rumble of thunder (5). 

 

2.      The 24 elders

Move away from God’s throne and surrounding it are 24 elders sitting on 24 other thrones.  Who are these who are mentioned 7 times in Revelation?  Some say angels but if so, it would be the first time the Bible ever calls someone who’s not human, an elder.  Furthermore, no angel in the Bible is ever given a crown.  But people are (2 Timothy 4:8; James 1:12; 1 Peter 5:4).

When James and John were lobbying to sit to Jesus’ left and right in his kingdom, Jesus said  no, those seats are already reserved for someone (Matthew 20:23) and we can assume they are people.  But who?  Even if we could see their faces I don’t think we’d discover church heroes like Augustine, Jerome, Luther, Aquinas, or Calvin.  Some think the 12 apostles + the 12 patriarchs of Israel but we have no indication of it.  We don’t know who they are, but we do know they minister before God, and that their work includes collecting and bearing your prayers and mine (5:8).

 

3.      The 4 creatures

And then there are the 4 creatures.  This quartet situated between God’s throne and the 24 elder thrones, and as you read about them it makes you feel like you’ve fallen out of the back of a wardrobe into Narnia.  Each is distinct from the other and like no animal we know of.  One is like a lion but isn’t a lion; one is like an ox but isn’t an ox; one has a man’s face but is not a man.  One is like an eagle in flight but isn’t an eagle.  Each creature has 6 wings covered by eyes.  (No wonder God can see everything!)  They aren’t animals because they speak.   They are some sort of supernatural beings God created (“creatures”) especially to serve Him and to lead His worship.  They never stop saying…

Holy, Holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.

Almighty (pantokratwr).  All-powerful.  Unstoppable.  God’s message to beleaguered Christians everywhere was: I am still running the show.  I am still sovereign over all…, yesterday, today, and forever.  30 years ago Nero was making your parents’ lives hell on earth.  Today Nero’s dead.  Emperor Domitian is making your lives miserable, but he will be dead before the year is out.  As Jesus reminded Pilate, You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above (John 19:11).

Your Jewish neighbors hate you and do all they can to keep you from finding jobs.  But I will make them come and fall down at your feet and acknowledge that I have loved you (Revelation 3:9).

This quartet leads worship.  Following their lead, the elders fling themselves down onto the crystal floor, their white robes splayed in all directions like a lily facedown.  The remove their crowns and place them as offerings before the throne, their worship rising:

You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.  Glory to God!  Glory to God!  GLORY TO GOD!!

Do such lines have any effect on you?  Heaven?  Yawn.  Today’s too all-consuming to permit me to contemplate tomorrow.  I’m trying to figure out that problem with a subcontractor.  Or how I can get the girl I want to date to say “Yes”.  Or where I can find a job.  Or find a way to stay married.  Or what school I should attend.  Or should I retire?  Or how do I get the crabgrass out of my lawn?

I’ve shared before a popular saying when I was a boy: That person’s so heavenly minded she’s no earthly good.  I’m not convinced it’s not the other way around.  Is that cliché just a way of camouflaging a very natural, very human—and very demonic, desire to keep God at a distance?

Just a couple of weeks before I graduated from seminary, one of my professors wrote this in an article in Christianity Today:  We do not yearn to be near God because we do not find sin utterly repugnant or goodness rapturously attractive.  If our faith is half-hearted it will always be man-centered.

I can only imagine how the sights and sounds of God’s inner sanctum froze John in wonder.  Which—I think—is exactly what it was designed to do…, to all of us.

The Bible puts God, His power and His presence, in the center of faith.  He is the Object of all glory, the object of our worship, Sustainer of the universe and Provider for all He has made.  He made the ocean and then drew a line in the sand where waves had to stop.  He created lightening but keeps it in storehouses for just occasional use.  He ordained where each people group would live and He raises up and deposes presidents.  In the arid desert he somehow finds food to feed wild donkeys.  Like wind He blows in a way that appears to be “erratic”, moving from one life to another with no sense of pattern, setting this person and that one free from sin.

Come “face-to-face” with the living God and man-centeredness evaporates in the press of awe and wonder.  Encountering God, Job clapped his hands over his mouth in repentance; Isaiah cried out in terror; Saul went blind.  God’s presence has all kinds of effects but none of them are ho-hum.  Being in God’s presence helps us sort out what matters from what doesn’t.  Worship follows.

 

Concl:

There’s a movie coming out next month starring Julia Roberts called Eat.  Pray.  Love.  In the trailer the main character says, “I want to go someplace where I can really marvel at something.”   

Go to Revelation 4; to Revelation 5; to Revelation 21 and 22.  Christian, think about it: if you saw God in all his glory, would you still despair?  If you saw God in all His glory, would you still concern yourself with all the petty things that consume your energies?  If you saw God in all His glory, would you fears still run amok?  If you saw God in all His glory, would you still have the audacity to think some of His ways need updated?  If you saw God in all His glory, would you still crave the world?  If you saw God in all His glory would you keep quiet about Jesus?

I’m going to read the chapter one more time as we close.  Shut your eyes and meditate on it; imagine you’re there; imagine you see it; imagine you’re actually in the presence of the Most High.