Sermon at FFMC 25/1/26. Is He Worthy? The One on the Throne (Rev 4:1-3, 8-11)

Is He Worthy? The One on the Throne

After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” ² At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne. ³ And he who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald. (⁴ Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders, clothed in white garments, with golden crowns on their heads. ⁵ From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumbling and peals of thunder, and before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God, ⁶ and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal.

And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: ⁷ the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight. ⁸ And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say,

“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty,
    who was and is and is to come!”)

⁹ And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, ¹⁰ the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying,

¹¹ “Worthy are you, our Lord and God,
    to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
    and by your will they existed and were created.” (Rev 4:1-3, 8-11)

 

 

Introduction

In Revelation 4 we move from earth to heaven, from the realities of God walking among his people (2:1) to a higher reality.

 

Eleven times in Revelation, John says “I looked”, signalling a fresh vision. It is true that it is God who shows us things, but most often, we do not see unless we make the effort to consciously perceive what He has to show us. We must ‘look’. Today, let us ‘look’ with John into the glories of heaven.

 

The ‘first voice’ belongs to Jesus speaks (cf. 1:10 ‘like a trumpet’). This is the voice of the One who loved John, and the One who also loves us.

 

“Come up here” tells us that God is giving him a better view of reality. A ‘helicopter view’. We can only grasp context when we go higher. We need a broader perspective of life. We need context. We fight battles on the ground, but from time to time we must see the whole battlefield. We must share the vision of the Heavenly Captain, our Commander-in-chief, and trust His wisdom and power and love.

 

We can be distracted and discouraged by our life on earth: relationship issues, career issues, academic issues, our own sin and failures, as well as the opposition and criticisms of others. Now with John, Jesus invites us to “come up here”

 

“What must take place” speaks of sovereignty. God not only knows the future, but He controls it. He knows what must happen because He wills it to happen. He knows every possibility of what might have happened had there been any changes. He knows all things. As the old song says, “many things about tomorrow,, I don’t seem to understand” - but He does. He holds our hand

 

1.       The throne

The throne is the first thing John sees. God is not on a sofa or a bed. It is not even a driver’s seat. The throne speaks of God’s sovereign rule. In this world, there are authorities and thrones, rulers and powers. We have bosses, or governments, who tell us what to do. (or spouse!) But there is an authority above authority, a throne beyond thrones, a rule beyond rulers and power beyond all powers.

 

What do we know about this throne?

·         It is central: everything in heaven circles around the throne. Reality is not about us. Our lives and our worship must reflect this reality.

·         It is glorious: precious jewels and rainbow. It is beautiful and attractive.

·         It is mysterious “had the appearance of” (4:3) (cf. Ez 1:26). Human minds cannot hold or understand it.

·         It is distant: 4 living creatures, 24 elders, sea of glass. Very far, inaccessible.

·         It is dangerous (Ex. 19:16–19). Lightning and thunder., It excites terror, not only awe. We see disaster movies until we are numbed to the power of nature in thunderstorms and tsunamis and earthquakes and ocean waves. We cannot control these. Our lives are at risk This is a shadow of what we are to feel when we approach God.

 

This is the vision of God we need.

It is true that we can treat God informally. God is our friend, We have access to him.

But we do not see the wonder of the privilege of informally coming to God if we do not see how great and glorious, how mysterious, separated from us and how dangerous it is

He is both near to us – our loving Father and Friend, but very far from us. Jesus paid the price to bridge that distance, so we can in a sense walk up to that throne, lie on God’s lap and be held in His embrace. But we must never take Him for granted. We are to treat him with holy fear (Dt 4:24, Heb 12:29)

 

2.       The One on the throne

• He is holy. He is “holy, holy, holy”. Echoes the vision of God’s throne given to Isaiah in 6:3.

The holiness of God is more than just moral purity. It speaks of His otherness – His separateness from us, His unique majest.

His holiness is almost be a description of what God is like. He is the highest degree of holiness. All that is said to be holy in the Bible is holy because God either owns it or uses it. These things, times, places and peoples derive their holiness from God.

 

• He is eternal “who was and is and is to come”. He “lives forever and ever”. He was before all things. He does not need us. He exists independent of us. He does not change and will never cease to be. Each one of us once was born, and one day we will die (unless the Lord returns first). We had a beginning and an end. Even the universe had a beginning and an end according to the Big Bang theory. But God does not. He never had a beginning. He will never have an end. This is what it means to be God.

 

• He is Creator “for you created all things  and by your will they existed and were created.” To be Creator speaks of His power and authority. He made us from nothing, and He owns us. We are accountable to Him. He created not out of need for company, or worship, but out of goodness and love. He not only made us, but he sustains His creation moment by moment (Heb 1:3 he upholds the universe by the word of his power; Col 1:17 “And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”)

 

Conclusion

We need a vision of God and His glory. We need Him for our worship, we need Him for our daily life to encourage us and to help us in our struggle against sin. This is reality beyond reality. The spiritual is more real than the physical (cf. Elisha in 2 Kings 6)

Let us have frequent ‘looks’ into spiritual reality. Let us have a view of heaven that is not far from our eyes.

 Link to video here