Living Beings Surrounding God’s Throne

Transcript

GR 2001
04/30/2017
Living Beings Surrounding God’s Throne
Revelation 4:4-6
Gil Rugh

We’re studying the Book of Revelation together so turn in your bibles to Revelation if you would. I try to do enough review to help fix these things in our mind but not so much review that you think we’re doing the same thing all the time. We’ve come into chapter four of the Book of Revelation and you’ll remember chapter one verse 19 broke the Book of Revelation down into three major parts. Chapter one what had already taken place, the vision John had of the resurrected Christ. Chapters two and three the messages to the churches, which are pertinent to all the churches during what we call the church age from Acts chapter two down until the Rapture of the Church. Then the Rapture of the Church would occur between chapters three and four as far as time line goes, we’ve looked at that. When we move into chapter four, we move to the future part of the book that will take us from chapter four through chapter 22.

Now God begins by giving us a vision of heaven and it ought to be a very central portion for our attention as God’s people because chapters four and five of Revelation and chapters 21 and 22 will give us the fullest most complete description of the future our eternity if you will. We’re going to spend eternity in the presence of the glory of the eternal God. Now chapters four and five precede what begins in chapter six the messages of judgment and there’s a reason for that. Chapters 4 and 5 put things in perspective. Sometimes people have a difficult time with the idea of God’s judgement, God’s wrath and first we’ll begin before we see God’s wrath poured out on the earth, a severity of judgment on this world such as has never been seen before.

Things are put into perspective of seeing God ruling from heaven so chapter four begins and we looked at the description given of God sitting on the throne. This is God the Father, enthroned in heaven. John has been removed in his spirit, he’s given a vision, if you will, transported to heaven itself and there he sees things related to coming events and we have looked at the scene of God the Father on the throne. There is one God eternally existing in three Persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Sometimes we think well the only Person we will see is God the Son the resurrected glorified Christ but that is not true. When John is transported to heaven, he sees God the Father sitting on the throne. God in all three Persons is omnipresent. He is present everywhere all the time but He chooses to manifest His presence, all three Persons in a visible amount of way to His creation, so John sees God the Father sitting on the throne.

We’ll see a manifestation, a representation of the presence of the Holy Spirit of God and we’ve already seen Jesus Christ glorified in chapter one and He’ll become a focal point in chapter five of this heavenly scene. We’ve already talked about the details of how God is revealed here and I just want to review those with you briefly. We start with the fact that God is sovereign. That’s the first thing we noted about the revelation of God given in this section. That’s in verses one and two. God is sitting on a throne. Sitting on a throne means He’s sovereign, He’s ruling, He has authority and of course since He’s God His authority is absolute so the first thing to realize and remember and this will become crucial as we move into the rest of the book, God is sovereign. We’re going to see disasters on the earth on a scale we’ve never seen. We’re going to see people dying for all kinds of reasons like have never happened. People dying numbering in the billons so we need to keep in perspective, God is sovereign. Sometimes we look at the world around us today and think well sometimes it seems like things are out of control. What is happening? How can this happen? Well remind ourselves God rules, He’s sovereign.

Come back to the Book of Daniel. Daniel chapter four. Just a reminder of God’s sovereignty over all because remember the blessing promised for those who read the prophecies of the Book of Revelation and obey them. The truths revealed in the Book of Revelation is just not to satisfy some of our desires to know about future things it is to shape the way we live day by day as God’s people. We live in light of what God says He is doing and will do. Daniel chapter four, Daniel is speaking here, Nebuchadnezzar is being told--Nebuchadnezzar is the most powerful man ruling the Babylonian Empire that has conquered what was left of the kingdom of Israel, the southern two tribes Judah and Benjamin but Daniel is reminding Nebuchadnezzar that there is one sovereign ruler overall and so down to verse 17.

What happens--we’ll pick up in the middle of the verse. What is happening is, “. . . in order that the living may know that the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind, and bestows it on whom He wishes, and sets over it the lowliest of men.” We’ve come to this passage many times; it’s a reminder God is sovereign. There is not a person ruling at any level anywhere in the world that is not there by the appointment and plan of God. Romans 14 develops that in the New Testament. There is no authority except that established by God. That doesn’t mean every ruler is a godly ruler, every person in place is of great character or making biblical kinds of decisions but they are there for God’s purpose, all fulfilling what He is determined.

You come down in Daniel chapter four the end of verse 25, “. . . until you recognize that the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind, and bestows it on whomever He wishes.” The end of verse 26, “. . . your kingdom will be assured to you after you recognize that it is Heaven that rules.” Nebuchadnezzar you’re not the ultimate ruler. You may be the ruler of the most powerful empire on earth at the time but you’re just a minor ruler in the context of the sovereign God and His absolute control. Come down to the end of verse 32, “. . . until you recognize that the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind, and bestows it on whomever He wishes.” Down in verse 34 Nebuchadnezzar finally comes to realize that, “. . . I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever; for His dominion is an everlasting dominion, His kingdom endures from generation to generation.” Now note this, “All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, but He does according to His will in the host of heaven among the inhabitants of the earth; and no one can ward off His hand or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’ That’s the sovereign God!

So when we begin in Revelation chapter four with John getting a vision of God sitting enthroned in heaven, the picture of His absolute authority, His absolute control, we need to be reminded of that as believers God’s in control. Sometimes I listen to believers and I think, boy, we’re just as worried, just a frustrated and just as fearful as the unbeliever. Boy if so and so doesn’t get voted in, if this doesn’t happen what’s going to happen? God’s purposes are going to happen; even their rebellious sinful activity is under His control.

Babylon didn’t conquer the Jews because they were more powerful. Babylon conquered the Jews because God raised them up to bring judgment on the Jews….those godless people and you know what? He said they’d endure seventy years of Babylonian captivity. You know what happened after seventy years? The Babylonian Empire collapsed. God determined it. He uses it. He raised them up. He puts it down. So first thing, and keep this is mind, when we move into the terrible judgments, “Oh, I don’t think God would do that women, children, babies.” They’re going to die by the millions, the hundreds of millions, in terrible deaths and God is sovereign in it so that’s the first point.

The second thing we saw about God. God is holy and this is pictured by the description of Him as you come back to the Revelation chapter four. He’s described as a jasper. The picture there around the throne, verse three. He was sitting like a jasper stone. We noted the jasper stone, in light of Revelation 21, we looked there was clear as crystal, not like our modern jasper, opaque but it’s like the diamond and that reflects and pictures the holiness of God. That crystal-clarity, the purity the holiness of God that is being manifest.

The third thing we saw about God is He is just, a sardius in appearance in verse three. The sardius stone a blood red stone, pictures something of His justice. If you go by a bible dictionary, a bible encyclopedia or some of the commentaries they’ll take you through the different passages that help compare some of the things that give us an understanding of what is being described. This just isn’t like a painting that somebody made up; this is revealing something of God to His creation and something of His justice revealed in that sardius blood red color.

Something of His mercy seen in the rainbow around the throne and it’s like an emerald that emerald green, God’s mercy connected to the meaning of the rainbow. We went back to Genesis 9. In the midst of all, that judgment we’re going to see unfolded there, is going to be mercy. There will be people saved in that seven-year Tribulation by God’s mercy, by God’s grace and so in the time of the most awful judgments God extends His mercy.

The fifth thing we observed is God is a Judge since He is “just” as we noted with point three, He is also a Judge. That comes out in verse five. From the throne come flashes of lightning, sounds, peels of thunder. A God who is holy, a God who is just, must bring justice. We get frustrated sometimes when we see things done and we say where is the justice so God as the holy God who is just must exercise judgment on the world. And that’s what will be happening in chapters six to nineteen climaxing with the greatest of all judgements the great white throne at the end of chapter 20 when people are sentenced to hell for eternity. The Book of Revelation is primarily focused on judgment. You have to understand it comes from a holy God. We have a hard time with judgment. We’ve got that because we don’t appreciate His holiness, appreciate what the God who is just does to bring about judgments.

The last thing we noted in our consideration of God on the throne was is God is transcendent. I originally had God is separate from His creation but it doesn’t fit on the slide so I used the theological word, “transcendent” which means God is separate from His creation. That’s what was brought out in verse six. “Around the throne, there was, something like a sea of glass like crystal;” and that seems to portray the fact that God is separate from His creation. We’ll see the created beings around the throne, but they are separate from God, so when we say God is transcendent we mean He is separate from His creation.

When we say God is “immanent”, it means He is involved with His creation. Both are true. The Deist, some of our early founders of our country were Deist who believed that God created the world and then withdrew. They emphasized that transcendence of His not being involved. Some people emphasize the immanence of God to the sense that they reduce Him to being like us. God says through the Old Testament prophets, “you thought I was like you.” No, He is immanent, He is present with us, in us as His people but He is also transcendent so we must respect that and honor Him as God.

With that picture of God the Father, remember keep that in mind. We don’t just forget it, get into the judgments of chapters 6 to 19 and think what is happening? God is ruling. We’ll come back to that and back to that, remember that today, everything going on, the world’s not out of control, God’s enthroned, that’s why we don’t get on and say, “well boy, evangelicals.” I was watching an interview of a Christian leader, “well we evangelicals are here and we believe it’s important for this” and somehow we get reduced to just another variation of a political party.

I believe that the worst of the rulers in the world today is there because God has put him there for the accomplishing of His purposes. He’s not there frustrating God’s purposes. He’s there opposing God as unbelievers do but this truth that God reveals about Himself is a reminder to us in every situation, the worst of times as we would look at it the best times, there is stability. God sits on His throne in Heaven and Heaven rules so we move on in chapter four.

We skipped over some things because we wanted to pull the things together that describe God on His throne but in addition to God being on His throne there are three groups of living beings surrounding the throne. You’ll note in verse four, around the throne were twenty-four thrones, on the thrones twenty-four elders. The first group, the twenty-four elders. The second group around the throne down at the last part of verse five, there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God; . . . so the second group around or present at the throne are the seven Spirits of God. We have twenty-four elders now we have seven Spirits and the third group of beings around the throne the four living creatures and they are the last part of verse six. Around the throne, four living creatures and their description goes on through verse seven and verse eight so they have an important role to play here so what we’re going to be doing now is moving through each of these groups present at the throne.

Who are they? Why are they here? What is their importance? So we’ll begin with the twenty-four elders verse four, “around the throne were twenty-four thrones; upon the thrones I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white garments, golden crowns on their heads.” So we have three things said about the twenty-four elders. First, they are seated on twenty-four thrones so the elders are sitting on thrones. Secondly, they are clothed in white garments and thirdly at the end of verse four they have golden crowns on their heads.

Now these descriptions will help us sort out just what are these elders doing here. Who are they? There’s two basic opinions on the identity of these elders. Some believe they are angels, a specific group of angels, and some very good commentators hold that view. The other view is that they are men, human beings that are here in heaven. I hold the second view that these are representatives of a specific group of human beings. They are not angels. I think the descriptions given here are more consistent with what the Book of Revelation and other passages of Scripture say about the Church.

Now some say they are men and since there’s twenty-four, 12 represent Israel and 12 represent the church. The problem I have with that is Israel has not been resurrected and glorified yet; we’re getting ahead of ourselves. We saw between chapters three and four what happens is the Rapture of the Church so all believers from Acts chapter two down until that event will be raptured, bodily removed from the earth, raised from the grave, their bodies will be glorified, they will appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ. We’ll talk more about that when we do that toward the end of the Book of Revelation, the different judgments and they are accordingly rewarded so since Israel hasn’t been resurrected and glorified yet I don’t think they are pictured and represented. I think the twenty-four elders represent the church.

I want to give you the reasons why I think that is so. Just number one as an overview first point here we want, just a general point. This connects to the overcomers, the description of the elders and remember the overcomers are identified with each of the churches. So all seven churches that are addressed in chapters two and three had promises as the letter ended to the overcomers and when we see what the promises were we’ll see that fits what is said about these elders so that immediate connection would point them to me to the church so that’s just a general overview.

Let’s look at the specific descriptions here and then we’ll look at the connection back at the overcomers and other places. They’re in white garments. That would be the second point here to get more specific. They are clothed in white garments and in the Book of Revelation redeemed believers, the church are clothed in white garments. Come back to chapter three of Revelation verse five and here is a promise to the church at Sardis to the overcomers there verse 5. “He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments; . . .” Look down in verse 18 the promise to the church at Laodicea and the advice. “I advise you buy from Me gold refined by fire, so that you may become rich and white garments, so that you may clothe yourself, and the shame of your nakedness is not seen. . .” So there coming out of these, promises are instructions to people for believers in the church and in the churches that fits with the description of these elders clothed in white garments.

Come over to chapter 19 of Revelation. We are ready for the return of Christ to earth. The Rapture has occurred some seven-years earlier. Now after the judgments pouring out God’s wrath on the earth we are ready for Christ to come at Armageddon and to set up His kingdom. So in verse 7 of Revelation 19. “ . . . Let us rejoice and be glad and give glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.” That is the Church, the Bride of Christ. It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints and the righteousness secured in Christ was the advice He gave to the church at Laodicea. It’s now also seen in the outworking of the obedience of those redeemed in Christ and now they’re clothed the Bride in that fine linen; bright and clean. It doesn’t mean angels couldn’t be described in white garments but in the context of Revelation and the promises given to the churches and the description of the Bride that’s another reason, I think the white garments portray the Church represented in Heaven.

A third reason, we have the overcomers generally, and then the white garments, the third thing about them, the crowns. Now there’s two kinds of crowns in Greek two basic ones, we’re dealing with the stephanos crown and the diadem crown. We’re familiar with the diadem we see it used today. A stephanos crown was the crown of a victor. In other words if you won in an athletic contest, for example, in the Greek Olympics you were given a stephanos and that crown was just a leafy wreath but it symbolized and represented you had won the victory. The diadem is the crown of the ruler. Christ wears both of them in Scripture. He can be seen with the diadem because He is the ruler but He is also the ultimate victor. The crown here is the stephanos crown. When it says at the end of verse 4 of Revelation 4. They had golden crowns they had golden stephanos on their heads. That’s the kind of crown it’s the victors crown and these are associated with the redeemed in the church.

Come back to chapter two of Revelation the promise to the church at Smyrna. “Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold the devil is about to cast some of you into prison so that you will be tested, you will have tribulation for 10 days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the “stephanos” of life” the crown, the victors crown of life.

Look in chapter three verse 11. The promise here is to the church at Philadelphia. “I am coming quickly; hold fast what you have, so that no one will take your “stephanos.” You know it’s like being in a race, you know it’s a race to the finish it’s not just a race for the first part and so He’s encouraging them. Hold fast, stay faithful, you have to complete the course, and you don’t want to give up, you lose the reward; the stephanos promised again to the Church, so this again coming out of the churches of Revelation 2 and 3. You see the promises to the churches.

Come back to see these crowns. Come back to 1 Corinthians chapter nine. They are repeatedly mentioned as promised rewards to believers in the church. First Corinthians chapter nine verse 24 and Paul is using the analogy of athletic competition. Verse 24 of 1 Corinthians 9. “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things.” They do it to receive a perishable stephanos, the word translated “wreath” there is our word stephanos and those athletic games what they received as a stephanos a crown was that perishable twigs and leaves that kind of thing but what it represented, the victory, but we are running to get an imperishable stephanos. We see that with the elders crowned with golden crowns before the Throne of God so that reminder to believers in the church at Corinth of that gold.

Come over to 1 Thessalonians chapter two. “To the church at Thessalonica,” verse 19. “For who is our hope or joy or stephanos of exaltation, our crown our stephanos of exaltation? Is it not even you, in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming?” So Paul looks forward to the reward that will be his because of the ministry he had among the Thessalonians and their presence there. Well part of the victory for which he will be rewarded.

Look at 2 Timothy, just go through Thessalonians, you’ll be in Timothy, come to Paul’s second letter to Timothy chapter 4. Paul is at the end of his ministry the end of his life he’s imprisoned he knows that he will not be leaving this prison to continue ministry; he will be executed. He says verse seven, 2 Timothy 4:7, “I have fought the good fight; I have finished the course,” so again you see that picture of the race. He says I’ve finished I’m not in the middle of the race I’m at the end of the course for me. I have kept the faith. You see what later Christ exhorted the church in Revelation, hold fast you don’t want to lose the reward, you can’t quit before the end. “In the future there is laid up for me” and here we are, the stephanos, the crown of righteousness, “which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; not to me only, but to all who have loved His appearing.” Here again, a promise to those who are part of the church that Christ has established.

Come over to James. Go on through the large Book of Hebrews and right after Hebrews you come to James chapter one verse 12. “Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has approved, he will receive” . . . here we are . . . “the Stephanos of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.”

Then, finally, 1 Peter after James. First Peter chapter five verse four. And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading stephanos of glory and my bible may have a note there; a (1) in front of crown and they put wreath. The idea is they’re trying to connect it. It’s the stephanos it’s the victor’s crown that you got at the end when you’ve successfully completed the course so all of this. Then you connect that to the fact that the churches and each of the churches of chapters two and three of Revelation the promises were given to the overcomers.

Well 1 John chapter five, remember, who is he who overcomes but He who believes that Jesus is the Christ. So believers in Christ who make up the Church are the overcomers and what would you think an overcomer gets; an overcomers crown, a victors crown. We have overcome; we’re the victors we have finished our course so the crowns I think depict the Church. It’s consistent with that.

Back in chapter four of Revelation. These elders are sitting on thrones, twenty-four elders’ twenty-four thrones. I would take it this would depict the rule and authority we are going to have and promised to have in the kingdom that Christ will establish. Now these elders are enthroned before the throne of God but fitting that they are seen in positions of authority that will be theirs when we get to the ultimate goal. Where we’re really going is Revelation 20, 21 and 22 when the heaven that we are seeing described chapters four and five literally will descend on the new earth so we’re sitting on thrones, we’ll be ruling and reigning, and that’s what’s promised to believers in the Church.

Come back to Revelation chapter two and look at the promise to the church at Thyatira in verse 26. “He who overcomes and He who keeps My deeds until the end, TO HIM I WILL GIVE AUTHORITY OVER THE NATIONS.” What does a throne represent? Authority. “HE SHALL RULE THEM WITH A ROD OF IRON, and it’s the same as, I also have received authority from My Father.” Now the structure here that the Son has been given all authority and He shares that authority with us, not that we are on His level but we will be exercising authority under His rule so that promise, consistent with seeing them sitting on thrones. They are those destined to exercise authority in the kingdom that the Book of Revelation is about seeing established finally.

Look in chapter three verse 21 and the promise to the overcomers at the church at Laodicea. “He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down on My Father’s throne.” So you see the overcomers are promised to share the rule of Christ; that’s what it means to sit down on His throne. It doesn’t mean we’ve been elevated now to His level obviously but we share His authority that will be delegated to believers in the churches. We’ll see that when we get over to Revelation chapter 20 but come back to 1 Corinthians chapter six just for an example outside the Book of Revelation but the point is the same.

Church age believers, which we’re talking about right now, are destined to reign with Christ in His kingdom. First Corinthians chapter six again this is addressed to a church a local church the church at Corinth. The problem was some of the believers among all of them they had at the church at Corinth—sometimes you know we look and say the church of Indian Hills at Corinth or the church of Corinth at Indian Hills in Lincoln. We have conflicts we have things. There’s a way to handle and resolve conflicts there’s a way not. One of the ways we do is if something happens to you in the parking lot when you’re leaving, I’m going to get a lawyer I’ll sue you. Dare any one of you when he has a case against his neighbor, dare to go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints? You don’t go ask the unbeliever to resolve a difficulty between two believers. If we’re both believers, both under the control of the Spirit, we ought to be able to have it resolved by other believers. Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? What he means there; rule exercise authority.

In the kingdom, we will be judges, we will be rendering decisions. If the world is to be judged by you, aren’t you competent to judge the smallest courts? I mean you wouldn’t think that somebody being appointed to the Supreme Court was unfit to make a decision among a minor dispute between two people. Now we are going to sit as God’s people, appointed to be in authority, and thus we will have authority to exercise judgment in the coming kingdom. Can’t you make a decision about disagreements among a couple of believers?

Do you not know that we will judge angels; we will have authority over angels in the kingdom. Angels were created “to be ministering servants to the heirs of salvation,” Hebrews tells us, so we’re going to have authority over angels, just one of the practical ways you see there is something that’s going to be true of our future. God doesn’t just tell us about the future so we can sit and dream about it on a rainy day, He tells us so we can live in light of it. You know what, if we are going to rule and reign in the kingdom, we ought to be able to resolve disputes among believers here. Well were not in the kingdom. No but you better live in light of the truths that are going to be true of us there, that’s the point so us exercising authority seems to me to be consistent.

Back to Revelation 4. These things, when you put them all together, seem to me to indicate the twenty-four elders represent the church. One more thing, they are called elders, there are twenty-four elders sitting on twenty-four thrones. The word elder, “presbuteros” is an elder and we have it in the plural. We just carried it over into English we have Presbyterian because Presbyterians have an elder form of government. They’re governed by presbuteroi; Presbyterian, the presbyters and they have the session of the presbyters or the elders and that’s their denominational structure. It comes from this word. It’s normally applied to men in Scripture. In fact there’s only one time when it might be applied to angels and that’s in Isaiah chapter 24 verse 23 in the Septuagint the Greek translation, and there’s a debate there whether it’s talking about elders or men. Every other time you talk about elders we’re talking about human beings, men in Scripture and you’re familiar we have elders that govern in our local church. Why?

Beginning in Acts chapter 14 verse 23 Paul’s first missionary journey, he retraces his steps and says in all the churches he established on his first trip through he appointed elders in each of the churches. From there on--we won’t take time to go through the Book of Acts but Acts chapter 15 mentioned a number of times, Acts chapter 20 Paul calls the elders of the church at Ephesus to meet with him at Miletus, in Acts chapter 20, and says God has appointed you as shepherds over His people. Then we have passages like 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1. Peter refers to it in 1 Peter chapter five. Elders are consistently connected with leading the church so it would seem to fit again here. We see them in heaven. We’ve just come out of letters to the churches, chapters two and three and now we read about elders. You’re familiar with all the letters that have been written prior to Revelation because all the rest of the New Testament letters were written before the Book of Revelation. It’s the last of the revelations given by God. It’s fitting that we would see them as representing the Church.

Why twenty-four—just to summarize we won’t take time to go back. If you go back and read 1 Chronicles chapters 23, 24 and 25, you’ll see that there were many thousands of priests. If I remember the number, right 38,000 at the time of the tribe of Levi, the priestly family. All of those couldn’t carry on the service and ministry at one time. Then you break it down. When you get to chapter 24, he lays out twenty-four divisions among the priests, and then one person from each of those divisions comprising twenty-four will represent the whole group in carrying out the activity. The twenty-four represent the whole group so it may be the twenty-four elders are taken here because they are representative of the Church and we are believer priests.

Well why not Israel? Because Israel hasn’t been resurrected, judged and glorified yet so they wouldn’t have their quote, “victors’ crowns” yet be clothed in white as we see the Church in chapter 19 and so on. So I think what we have here is the twenty-four elders are representative of the Church. The Book of Revelation is a revelation but you can see it will take time. Paul wrote to Timothy and said “be diligent to show yourself approved unto God a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of God” so it’s not that this can’t be understood, we just have to take the time to put the pieces together to see it.

All right, we want to look at one more group. I was going to look at all three groups but it didn’t work out last hour. I knew it wouldn’t work out here but there is a second group that are mentioned here at the end of verse five. There were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God. The seven lamps of fire represent the seven Spirits of God. We’re not going to do the details of them but I want to mention them so they’re fixed. This is the Holy Spirit manifesting His presence in a visible tangible recognizable way. We’ll go back to the background of this in the Old Testament in our next study.

Let me just mention the third group here and that will carry us to angels. There are “four living creatures” at the end of verse six of chapter four. Four living creatures, the last line of chapter six, “full of eyes in front and behind” and the description of them goes through verses seven and eight. They get the fullest description. These are a category of angels and we’ll look at that and they are given a similarly full description in Ezekiel chapter one and we’ll see their uniqueness. That sea of glass that was around the throne that we noted indicated something of God’s separateness from His creation. When we look into Ezekiel, one, which we’ll do in our next study you’ll find that these four living beings category of angels’ cherubim are under that sea of glass and in effect holding up the sea of glass on which the Throne of God is sitting. They are leading in directing the hosts of heaven including the twenty-four elders in the worship of God on His throne so a remarkable picture of heaven here.

Let me just summarize what we just said about the Church. You know good for us when things get difficult and when things press in upon us and crush down on us. It’s a good thing to be reminded these are temporary, but what is the destiny of the Church? First, it’s destined to be enthroned around the Throne of God so these twenty-four elders are reminding us the Church will be enthroned around the Throne of God. Good for those seven churches that He addressed in chapters two and three to be reminded of that because some of them He says are going to go through terrible difficulties. Some of them are off track already. Our destiny is to be enthroned around the Throne of God in heaven.

Secondly, we are to be clothed, destined to be clothed, in white garments. You can only secure righteousness in Christ and when you do then your life is transformed to be a life of righteousness. That together will be the reward in our white garments.

Thirdly, we are, destined to be crowned with golden crowns because we are overcomers and we are to live as overcomers. That doesn’t mean there aren’t struggles, there aren’t difficulties, there aren’t trials but we are overcomers because He has overcome so we will be crowned, the victory is assured but there is reward for faithfulness. Think about it. In the glory, of God’s presence in heaven, and ultimately when heaven is on earth, we will behold all three Persons of the triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It won’t be we’ll see Christ and then we’ll just maybe hear the voice of God the Father or sense the presence, we will see a manifestation of Their presence. We are destined to live for eternity in the presence of the glory of the triune God.

Lastly, as we’ll see when we look at the cherubim, we’ll be lead in worship by these glorious heavenly beings in the very presence of the Throne of God. How remarkable it is when we talk about the salvation we have in Christ, we talk about the promises. It puts in perspective the heartaches, the disappointments, the trials and everything else that goes on in life, the ups and downs. There is a steadiness for us because some things won’t change. The God that we serve rules; there is no variation in that. He rules in the best of times, the worst of times. He rules at all times.

When believers were being burned at the stake, God was ruling on the throne. When believers today are being persecuted and murdered in parts of the world, God sits on the throne. That brings stability to our lives. I don’t have to understand everything that’s going on or why God’s doing it this way but I know this is the way He’s doing it. It’s good for me because I’m the child He loves and it’s not out of control because He is on the throne. Our lives are to be shaped by these great truths and if there’s trouble ahead but in the end we will rule and reign in the glory of His presence.

Let’s pray together. Lord thank You for so great a salvation. Lord, we sing about it, we preach about it, we study it, but Lord sometimes we let our view of what You have done for us in Christ shrink to be too small. It’s good for us to be reminded again-and-again that You are the sovereign God and in Your sovereignty, You have provided and promised for us things that cannot be frustrated. They are guaranteed by the God who cannot fail. Thank you for the truths You have revealed concerning Heaven. Lord, may these truths shape our lives as we live today, and may we be encouraged and strengthen by them, even as You may choose to lead us through trials and difficulties. For any who don’t know You Lord, may they consider carefully what their awful destiny is and turn to You in faith to receive from You what only You can give, forgiveness of sins and eternal life. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen
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