Step on Up - Revelation 4:1-4

Okay, I'm going to follow a little bit different pattern, and that is begin just by reading the four verses that are included and involved. And so Revelation 4, 1-4, After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven, and a 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. And he who was sitting was like a jasper stone, and a sardius in appearance, and there was a rainbow around the throne, like an emerald in appearance. Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and upon the thrones I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white garments and golden crowns on their heads. We ask you here to consider briefly the key events that preceded what John describes above here.

Christ has come to earth as a babe. We're going way back here. He has come to earth as a babe. He has grown and ministered in Israel. He has died and been buried, raised, ascended and seated in the heavenlies. We who believe in Him have been identified with Him in these things. But at this point in the book of the Bible, the church has been raptured and taken to heaven to be with Christ.

And if you weren't here last week, I know that's a bit of a leap, so I ask you to trust me on that if you weren't here and get a handout. But the church age has passed and the seven-year tribulation period is about to begin. So from this point in time where we are right now, This is future. We're stepping into future. Remember the outline John was given in Revelation 119, what was, what is, that's the seven churches, and what will be. We're just about to step into what will be. And by the way, this what will be could be real close. The stage is being set for judgment time against an unbelieving world.

With that brief outline to set our perspective, let's take a deeper look into this passage. The first part says, after these things. We don't want to just pass over the phrase after these things. There's actually great significance to it. What you see is after these things, or in the singular, after this, real similar phrases, and it actually starts back in the Old Testament in Genesis. And it shows up here in Revelation in 119 that we made reference to there. Therefore, write the things that you have seen, the things which are, that is presently in John's time, and the things which will take place after these things. And one of the things that we want to make note of is that the phrase after these things is a phrase that ties things by time sequence.

Timing events that took place before were things that take place afterwards. And also it expresses reality. This is real stuff. It's not just John cooking it up. In the Old Testament, after these things, it's used like in Genesis and other historical books to kind of put things in sequence. And they're real events, not just made up stories. And to say it's this, then this, then this. Okay. On page two there, it says, I looked and behold. Now, I want to stop with this word, behold, because you're going to see it a number of times in the book of Revelation.

And this isn't something that John would have thought of, but it's something I'll ask you to think of. It has the idea of take a mental picture. Ever notice that there are things in life where if somebody asks you, do you remember this? You say, no, I don't remember that. But then something else will happen and you say, oh yeah, I remember that.

We can kind of take a mental picture and grab it in our mind's eye. Well, like for example, here's Craig and Jessica and they got married here, right? Not here, but married. Not too long ago, right? And my guess is that you have kind of a mental picture of that, don't you?

Why? Because it was really significant. And so John kind of does a similar thing here where he says, I'm taking a mental picture and I want you to as well. This is really important stuff. And so he's going to say that a number of times and he's doing that again here. All right.

Behold what? A door standing open in heaven. Is that just because somebody left the door open? What's the door standing in heaven about? Door standing open. Okay, yeah, there's access when the door is open, right? The door is open, there's access. And one of the things that you see there is Here's John.

He's been writing these things about the seven churches, and now the Lord says, no, wait a minute. I'm opening the door to heaven, and one of the things we pointed out previously is Revelation goes from heaven to earth to heaven to earth, and it goes back and forth about eight times. This is one of those going up under the heavenly scene kinds of moves here in the book. Now some people have thought that this door standing open in heaven is explicitly that that is the rapture.

I tend to think not, and let me point out the reasons why. One is only John gets the invitation to come up here. If it was a come up here all of you, that might be something else, but only John gets the invitation, not the whole church. The Lord Jesus didn't descend from heaven with a shout. So that part didn't seem to get involved there. There's no voice of an archangel, but there is a voice like a trumpet, but not the trumpet of God that goes along with the description of the rapture.

There's a purpose of having John gain access to the open door. It's to give the heavenly perspective. Why? Because he was told to write. So he's going on the heavenly scenes in order to write, and that's why he specifically gets the invitation there.

The rapture, the taking up of the church saints to be with Christ appears to have already taken place, as we'll see when we step into the scene. Wouldn't a door also indicate that, you know, today if a person was a non-believer, you know, you would just go up and up and up and you'd finally end up in heaven. It didn't say he went up.

You actually have to go through this door. So it's kind of like in a different location or someplace special. It's not part of this troposphere or stratosphere. Yeah, it's interesting. It's like all of a sudden he steps into this other realm and it's like a special access. Yeah, that's a good point. That's a good point. Yeah, it's like he's given the ability to step into this different realm and it doesn't appear to go along with a new body and all the other things that go along with it. Okay.

The next part, and the voice which I had heard, like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me, these two phrases are designed to point us back to Revelation 1.10, where John heard the voice of the glorified Christ in heaven. As John wrote before, he wrote this, I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day when I heard behind me a voice like the sound of a trumpet saying, write in a book what you see and send it to the seven churches. So this is the voice which I had heard like the sound of a trumpet. Same kind of voice, same sound even, speaking to me.

So he says, and come up here and I will show you what must take place after these things. So here's the after these things phrase showing up here to tell him this is the after these things, this is now the future. from when John is writing and still I would suggest future to us as well. So here's John getting a view of the heavenly scene there. One of the things that comes out of here too, here is John, can you imagine John Here's this guy. He's seen the Lord before, but it's been a number of decades. And the Lord has told him, write these things. Now he's going up into heaven. How much experience has he had going into heaven before? You start to think about that.

Yeah, it is a chuckle because this is like nothing he's ever experienced. And what kind of a body and a mind is he walking into heaven with? What's that? Yeah, he's walking just with our perspective and mindset and all that. So he's stepping into a completely different realm. He's stepping into a realm that's not only new to him, but of a completely different kind. So he is, you know, our expression is like a fish out of water or something. He is really in a place that's unlike anything he's ever seen. It's not just stepping into something new.

It's new and completely different. He has nothing to say, oh, this was just like that. He's going to use like and as, yeah, to help us understand things. But in the ultimate, this is really different, okay? Now, he steps into this place here, and something else. As he steps into this place, he's stepping into a throne room. God's throne room. I'm on page four here.

It says, immediately I was in the Spirit. And we talked about previously, he said, I was in spirit. So again, this is a spiritual state of revelation, not just I was walking in the spirit, like we are all called to do. But this is a spiritual state of revelation. A revelation by the Holy Spirit's doing. And you see this word, and behold. You've heard that before, right? And what do you say?

Take a mental picture. Take a mental picture. Your mind's going click. And a throne was standing in heaven and one sitting on the throne. Now, imagine, okay, you just came from planet Earth, and now you just walked through this doorway into heaven, and here you're seeing this throne where God himself sits.

How are you feeling about now? I think you would say behold or something, right? This has got to grab you. So do you think he physically was there or do you think this was all mental? I think one of the things that we're going to look at here, he says I was in spirit and so he's telling you this is a spiritual state of revelation.

Exactly how this is happening, I'm not sure. But he writes as if he has a vision of what's there. So that part, that much is clear. It seems like, here's a door standing open in heaven. It seems like whether he's physically there or whether he's given an appearance there, he seems to talk in the sense that he's actually there. So at least his senses have him there present. How the Lord did it, I guess we can ask the Lord when we get there. Maybe we won't have to wait very long.

Some of the things to start noticing here is this throne starts becoming central. This throne is 16 times in Revelation chapters 4 and 5. We see some of the initial things here. We start saying there is a throne, there is him who is on the throne, there are beings and effects around the throne, being and effects before the throne, from the throne.

The throne is the center of everything, right? That's the picture you get when you start reading through this. The throne is the place around which all heavenly activity centers. Everything centers around the throne. The throne is the reference point for all the other beings and effects, and the throne is the center of heavenly character. To give us some idea of what the throne is about, the throne gives meaning to everything else that's there.

Imagine, we used the picture of a wedding before, imagine a wedding take place. Everything about the wedding, the processional, the bridesmaids, everything goes on at the wedding. And then when the wedding's all done, there's the recessional, and you go to the reception and all that. Imagine that all takes place, but the bride and groom are not present. Everything happens just like it does. But the bride and groom aren't there. How are you going to feel about that? It'd be a little disappointing, right? It'd be rather puzzling. Why are we doing this thing?

The bride and groom are central to the wedding and without the bride and groom being there, the wedding doesn't make much sense. That's the way it is with this throne. The throne is so central to everything that's going on. that without it, nothing makes much sense. Everything that happens is relative to the throne.

Let me ask you, why the throne? The Book of Revelations has to do with ruling and reigning. So you start off with ruling and reigning. Ruling and reigning, this is what it's about. What does a throne represent? A kingdom. But what else does a throne represent? Authority. Authority is really the big thing that you see. The kingdom aspect of it will become more apparent as we get farther down in the book of Revelation. But yes, certainly authority comes out of the throne.

The other thing is, the throne is central to everything that goes on in the throne room. It's the focal point. That's why John keeps relating throughout this chapter and the next. He keeps relating everything to the throne. One more thing about the throne. The sense given in the Greek is that the throne had been set as if it were set in this instance as the master control room for the tribulation judgments to come.

It's a special phenomenon for a special purpose. It is a throne that has been set there. And it seems not to have been one that sat there the whole time. So it's like there's something special going on. A special event. Again, it would make the comparison to the wedding. There's a special event about to take place.

Let's look there at page 5. and he who was sitting was like a jasper stone and a sardius in appearance. Why the comparison? Why like this and like that? It's inexplicable by itself and so John compares it to something that we do know and understand or at least have hope to.

Yes? It's also a value system, isn't it? I mean, monetary worth or... Well, yeah, there is a sense of value in these stones, right? Okay, there's that. At first, you look at it and you think, well, does God look like some rocks? Say it here. It doesn't say river rocks. Pardon? It doesn't say river rocks. It says it's very valuable. Yeah. It says it was like.

So that's one of the things we're going to continue to see like this, like that. Especially as we look at the heavenly scene. Not exclusively, but especially as we look at the heavenly scene. John will relate things to something here on earth. So that we'll have some frame of reference.

One of the things that we see that's quoted here in Exodus 28 is this breastpiece or breastplate of judgment. It's something that the high priest was told to wear. It's this rectangular or square piece on the chest of the high priest. And as we go through that, they're told to put a stone for each of the twelve tribes. That's what it was representative of there.

And then later on in Exodus, subsequent chapter, it actually describes it again just to say it was done that way. So you have some observations from this Exodus passage and it's this. This breast piece or breastplate is called the breastplate of judgment and judgment is what is about to come on the earth. judgments about what to come.

The Sardius stone, named after the city of Sardis, is what we call a ruby. The Jasper stone is a reddish stone as well, typically anyway. These are the first and last stones of the twelve stones representing the twelve tribes. Very interesting. And we'll be talking about that in the main service here this morning. The sardius, or ruby, corresponds to Ruben, which means behold the sun, or, I should note, it could also mean behold a sun. But behold the sun is one of the possible meanings. And the jasper corresponds to Benjamin, which means son of my right hand.

So, as with the titles Alpha and Omega, or First and Last, those have already been referenced and those are taken out of the book of Isaiah, calling out these stones would mean these two and everything in between as well. These colors would tell us that the focus of God's judgment and concern regards the twelve tribes of Israel as we will see in the weeks and months ahead as we proceed through Revelation. The church is home, the church saints are in heaven, But now that this has come to pass, the shift of focus will be substantially upon Israel. And this, by the way, is from, of course, the description of the high priest of Israel. We're going to be seeing a shift away from the church as the earthly presence. towards Israel and the Gentiles, that division. The name church is now no longer going to show up until you get to the very last chapter when it's talking to the church that's present. But in terms of the tribulation period, the name church has now disappeared.

Now, And there was a rainbow around the throne like an emerald. Now here's this like description again, like an emerald in appearance. So the two themes that have come out of this part of verse 3 are the rainbow and the emerald. The rainbow is first mentioned in Genesis 9. This is in the time of Noah. And there the rainbow, translated bow, is clearly a symbol of God's covenant because of his mercy.

He's not obligated to promise never to flood the earth. Nobody was forcing his hand, saying, hey, you've got to do this, right? But he did so out of his mercy. It's also a symbol of his faithfulness to his covenant. This passage makes multiple references that when God makes a covenant, he keeps his promise because he's the promise keeper.

One of the big reasons it's clear that Noah's flood was not local, and many large local floods since the events of Genesis 9, God's promise was not to send a worldwide flood again. The rainbow is also what Ezekiel used to describe his view of the Lord in heaven. Here is Ezekiel chapter 1, as the appearance of the rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so is the appearance of the surrounding radiance. Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. So this description in Revelation here is consistent with what Ezekiel saw, as consistent with God's mercy and covenant as the promise keeper.

The rainbow seems to go all the way around the throne in a circle. Any of you ever seen a circular rainbow? A full circle? I see heads nodding both ways. When you've seen a full circle rainbow, where have you seen it? What's that? Overwater. Overwater. I've seen it flying, looking down on clouds. You'll see full circle rainbows. It's really something. What's amazing is you may be traveling several hundred miles an hour and the rainbow is still underneath you. If those colors stand for the tribes and they're in order, then correct me if I'm wrong, but emerald would be Levi, right? I don't know, I haven't checked that. Oh, I see.

So that's interesting because if he uses the color of Enlil, and it's surrounding the throne, and it's the tribe of Levi, that's kind of an interesting picture as well. Yeah, that would be an interesting connection. The law and the covenant and all would fit with the color. Yeah, and the priestly role. Very interesting.

And verse 4, around the throne were 24 thrones. Oh, wow. Is this getting complicated? And upon the thrones I saw 24 elders sitting clothed in white garments and golden crowns on their heads. Now, some people have put forth some ideas as to what these 24 elders stand for. Some have said it's some special kind of angels. Some have suggested that. Some have suggested it's Israel. Some have suggested it's Israel and the church. And some have said it's just the church.

How do you like that? Should we take a vote? I would like to suggest to you that looking at this thing, take a look at what I have here as evidence and see what you think. These 24 elders, they show up 12 times in Revelation, are representative of the church. And here is why I would conclude that. One is elders, who are church shepherds, are mentioned 15 times in the New Testament. It's the same word in the Greek. Are promised a victor's crown.

There's the Stephanos in 1 Peter 5.4. Just as the churches in Smyrna and Philadelphia were promised or encouraged about victor's crowns. That's a special kind of crown, not a diadem kind of crown.

Revelation 2.10 and 3.11. The elders in Revelation chapters 4 through 19 are also called prosbyteros, just the same, and are wearing or having Stephanos, which is a victor's crown. And so you've got that pattern.

Neither angels nor Israel are ever described as or promised to have to be rewarded with that Stephanos or victor's crown. That's never promised to the angels or to Israel. Israel's rewards are not promised as heavenly, but earthly. And these elders appear in heaven. Angels are never called elders anywhere else in scripture.

So I tend to limit that. Next page, page 7. Overcomers in the church of Laodicea are promised to sit with Christ on his throne. And it's the exact same Greek word that you see here, as he sits with his father on his throne, in Revelation 3.21. In the next one, believers have already been seated positionally with Christ in the heavenlies, which presumably refers to being seated on thrones, since the Greek verb kathizo is not referring to lying down on the floor of the ground.

Another one there, Israel will not be resurrected for judgment until the end of the tribulation, when the Messiah comes. So Israel hasn't been resurrected here yet. And by that time, the 24 elders no longer describe revelations being in heaven. Revelation 5.11 and 7.11 list the angels separately from the 24 elders, implying that the 24 elders are not angels. Has anybody got a question or bafflement yet? There's a lot to go through, isn't there?

The 24 elders are described as having white robes, which is the same as was promised to the overcomers of the church just one chapter before. So what you start to see is the church is promised in the two chapters before to have a victor's crown, white robe, and a throne. So what do you see the elders described as? Victor's crown, white robe, and a throne. So those tend to match up. Revelation 5, 8-10 is the 24 elders singing a new song in praise about how Christ the Lamb has redeemed people from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.

If this were angels, the song would not be new. They would have sung it long before, right? If it's a new song, it would be new because the church just showed up. If it's a new song, then it would seem strange to have angels be singing it. They could have sung it long ago.

If this were Israel, the praise would not likely be about everyone outside of Israel. The Gentiles, having just been raptured from every tribe and tongue and people and nation, sing a new song that fits with the raptured church. And finally, angels are seen executing judgments of wrath throughout chapters 7-18 of the book of Revelation, but the 24 elders are never seen doing so.

Okay, thoughts, questions, comments so far? It's either perfectly clear or completely baffling, right? It's a lot to absorb. I'll admit that. So you might want to go over and think about it. If you want to call me up and melt the phone, I'm okay. Anyway, just feel free to ponder that. We can talk about it some more if you'd like.

Now, we've got to ask the question, why 24 elders? How many people are there in the church from the time of the Apostles in Acts chapter 2 until now. How many people? Is there more than 24? Yeah, probably so. So if you ask why 24, that's a good question. That's a very good question. Why exactly that number? Some have guessed it stands for the number of tribes plus the number of Apostles.

What would be wrong with that? The tribes don't fit the elder. what we just went over. Yeah, everything you described doesn't sound right. Yeah. You say in here it's mixing apples and oranges. Yeah. It's mixing church and Israel. Yeah, it's mixing church and Israel, which is a real confusing factor. Yeah.

We just saw a real difference between the first three chapters of Revelation and now this fourth through the 19th chapter. This would put them together in the same place, which would be kind of strange. We also mentioned that Israel doesn't get resurrected until later. So that would be a little strange. But it places the apostles of the church and the elders of Israel on the same plane. And by the way, who's going to judge the tribes of Israel in the future? It's all the apostles, right? The apostles will judge. Christ said that in the Gospels.

So here's 24 elders, and it says that five times in this book. So it's specific, that number matters somehow. And there's 24 thrones for them. So it's not like musical chairs, we have 23 thrones and 24 elders. No, it's none of that game. No musical chairs for the 24 elders. So, what's fortunate is there are very few places in scripture where the number 24 shows up. That helps. So it's not like we've got 12 different choices here. So, the places where we can come up with the number 24 are these.

The number of tribes in Israel plus the number of original disciples. You've got to add those. And the number of tribes in Israel plus the number of priests that David assigned to be representative of the thousands of priests assigned to temple duty as explained in 1 Chronicles 24. What does that mean? Here's what David did. David said, I want to meet together with the priests, but I can't meet with all of them all at once, that's way too many. But I want, over time, to meet with all of them.

So what they did is that he had 24 priests meet with him, and all the priests rotated to their position. So that the 24 that he met with ultimately represented all of them. So there wasn't anything left out. And as he rotated the priests through that, role of meeting with him, he ultimately met all of them, and met with all of them.

There's something else about this number 24, and that's that, as we've seen from both the letters in the New Testament, as well as even the first couple, or these first three chapters of Revelation, they're indications that Christ wants intimacy with us. I think one reason why the number 24 is to have some personal contact, just like David wanted personal contact with all these priests. He wanted to be with every one of them. The number 4 makes it so that you can actually personally be there in the throne room of God and be with Him. So I think that may be the case. This practice is reflected in the book of Luke, chapter 1. Verses 5 through 10. Yes.

So basically what you're saying is it's very similar to the one high priest who went behind the veil and stood in the presence of God in front of the Ark of the Covenant. And with Israel only now we have 24 that are actually going to be in the presence of God. The real presence of God, not the Ark of the Covenant or the shadow or the symbol, but this is the reality. And here's something else that I think you're on to a good point, but here's something else to think of it.

It's not like a certain small group is all that gets represented. Everybody goes through those chairs. So, for example, if we say, all right, how many congressmen do we have? Some of you may say too many, right? But if we say how many congressmen, they represent us. but the vast majority of people are never going to be Congressmen.

With these 24 elders, it's a very different picture because with the priesthood and the access that they had to David, and who is Christ descended from, by the way? David, right? In the access they had to David, all the priests ultimately had intimate contact with David, personal contact, where they could see him and talk to him and shake hands or whatever else they did.

I was just thinking about that and to put that in perspective, I can't put it in perspective. An elder in front of God himself, I mean, that to me is just, that's unfathomable. Just to imagine being there, the creator of the entire universe, and you're an elder in front of... It is mind-boggling to ponder. Here's the creator of the universe, here is the one who loved me, you know, and gave himself for me, and I'm right there in front of him, not like there's this massive crowd and way across the you know, distance.

Yeah, he's over there somewhere. But no, we're all close enough that we can talk and we're right there. This is amazing stuff to ponder. And what's amazing is these 24 elders who are right there in the front room. Let me see if I can get a picture. Let me see. Nope. There. See the 24 elders in the throne room? So here's God on the throne. What we haven't seen yet, here's the four living creatures. We'll see those described before we're done here. But here's the 24 elders and then the angels there in the background.

There's at least some kind of pictorial representation, but just like any, you know, two-dimensional picture, it fails to convey the full immensity of what's taking place. But imagine, there you are, there is the Lord himself. Here is the glory and power behind the presence of the whole universe, seen and unseen. And you're there. and there's nobody closer.

Are you saying that these 24 are not just nominated or the ones that will be there, but they rotate through? They rotate through, and so there's a sense in which, okay, how do I make that work? That's why I say they are representative of the entire church. And I think rather than having this big throng, I think that it is pictured this way so that you can see, no I have some personal contact here and I am known. And the fact that David had the entire priesthood rotate through. I think that's the reason for the picture being presented that way.

I think the reason for that is to have us see ourselves as close to the Lord, right there in the throne room, and as you see, there's nobody else in between. I know it's not the number 24, but did not Moses' father-in-law, what was his name, But he told him that when he was judging all the people when they came out of Israel and Egypt, that he was supposed to break it down. What was it? If there was even numbers like thousands, hundreds and tens.

Right. Right. He developed a system. Right. But it's still administration. So right. You know, you administer through management and through hierarchy. Right. So this is really the same picture, only different numbers. Right. Here is one difference and that is that the way that worked is only a very few people actually ended up having contact with Moses, right?

Whereas in this case it's a matter of conveying a picture that has everybody in the church having personal contact with the Lord. I guess since you've got all of eternity everybody can If you look at it, you'll say, well, why didn't he just have a big, giant crowd of people? Because I've had people ask that. That seems like it'd be easier. But what that would lack is personal contact, being close.

Here, you look at it, there's nobody between any of those elders and the Lord. The Lord Himself. I believe that is the reason why the Lord had it pictured this way. Not as a representative in the sense of, okay, that's the guy who stands for us, but I'd never really get close to the Lord. This way it's pictured so that all of us have a closeness to the Lord. And imagine this, a closeness to the Lord with nobody else between us and the Lord.

It's not like you're looking over this big, huge, strong and saying, boy, I hope the Lord recognizes me. He sees everyone. So is there no literal representative? No literal representative? Yes. It's just conveying that there's a personal connection with the church. But I think the thing is, here's the interesting thing.

At one point, pretty quickly, we're going to see that one of the elders turns to John because John begins crying. And one of the elders says, stop crying. Imagine you're in heaven. And what it is, John doesn't understand. I mean, you're in heaven for heaven's sake. Here you are in heaven and You start crying. Because John doesn't understand what's happening, he starts crying. And one of the elders, hey, stop crying. So, a real interesting thing, it isn't impersonal representation, it's personal. Because one of the elders, hey, stop crying. You don't need to do that.

You're crying, you just don't understand. We're going to see several places as we go through here where John is just so out of context. Several places he doesn't know how to behave. At one place, pretty quick, He starts crying, and one of the elders says, John, stop it! You know, you're out of context.

In two places in the heavenly scene, he starts to worship an angel, and he says, no, no, not me. He is so out of his normal realm and everything that he understands, that he has to be corrected. Once by the elder, don't cry. And by two angels who say, don't worship me. Here's an angel as a created being, so brightly glorious that he can't tell the difference between the angel and the Lord.

How old is he and how long has he been on that island by himself? This guy, John, is in his 90s. And he's been alone for how long on this island? Some people said, is it true that he was tar and feathered before he was sent out there? I'd heard that it's possible.

The account outside of scripture, so that caveat, is that he was boiled in oil under order of Domitian. Oh, excuse me. Yeah, Domitian. but that he was not killed, and so Domitian put him on the island. That's not the biblical account, but that's the extra-biblical account.

But if that is true, then that would explain why he's there. So here's John. He's in this later years, no doubt about it. But just imagine being on this heavenly scene here and trying to describe things, try to get your bearings. This is beyond culture shock. It kind of shows that John's humanity is there for us. They didn't have to put those reactions of John in there.

Yeah. And then here John is right there and reacting like a human being. Yeah. When you start to look at it, that's a really good point. It gives a humanness to it. John is not just making up some story and acting like he's somehow Superman. He's overwhelmed by this. He struggles to get his bearings. He has a difficult, how do I describe this? I've got to describe it by things that people understand. So it's like this and like that. So as we step into this scene, I think that's just an important perspective for us to have.

And along with that, how many times did Daniel do the same thing? And Daniel was, you know, he bowed down and worshipped an angel at one time too and he cried and he was overwhelmed and all these other things. And he was a very reverent, reverent prophet. And so I think it shows the character of the person and the reverence they have for spiritual and heavenly things. It's part of that nature of compassion.

One of the things that seems interesting to me is John is qualified in the sense that he is, I mean, John's a believer. He could easily be sitting in one of the 24 elder seats. But like you pointed out, he's given more of a human characteristic in this scene than he is a raised believer. That really is, you know, because John's qualified. He could be sitting in one of the 24 elder seats, but he's viewing this from a different angle. He's viewing it as a human being living still in this kind of a body, stepping into a realm where the others aren't there. And let me ask this, are you one of the elders? Essentially, yes. Because as a representative, you're there and you're there with the Lord. And there's nothing between you and the Lord. See the scene? There's nothing between you and the Lord. You're right there.

And so here's John and he's seeing you. Isn't that something? Here's John and he's seeing saints. Good saints. Us. There in the heavenly scene. So this is amazing stuff. This is fascinating. Now, here's what's cool. We're going to continue through chapter 4 and chapter 5 and it's all on the heavenly scene. It is really neat stuff. That's why I look at it and I get excited.

I think, man, here's John looking at this. The elders that he's looking at that could just as well be us. And so here's John trying to describe it. So here we are right now reading about where we might be minutes from now. Isn't that something to think about? We could be there as soon as minutes from now. And here is John writing towards the end of the first century about you and me. This is kind of mind-boggling stuff, isn't it?

I'll finish here with Colossians 3, 1-7, which is the bottom of page 8 there. Therefore, since you have been raised up with Christ, seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God, set your mind on the things above, the things that we've been reading about, and not on the things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you will be revealed with Him in glory."

Here. Okay? Therefore, consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience. And in them you also once walked when you were living in them.

Isn't this amazing stuff? I just love it. Because we begin to get a descriptive glimpse of where we will be, of life as it will be, that could be very close. Could be very close. And this is me. And we've just opened the door. Here's John. He says, I saw this door open. Behold, you know, and look at the throne and behold. And then this is what I saw. This is what I saw. He begins the description. It's to me tremendously exciting. We struggle with a lot of things here on planet Earth. We do. Including these things. This body of ours.

But what a neat thing to look here as John is given this special glimpse by the Lord there on the heavenly scene. There where you and I will be. There where you and I will share the same room with the Lord. With nobody in between. Ourselves and the Lord. When position becomes condition. When position and condition are the same, when we're not saying, why won't the coffee break? You know? I'm sure glad the second buzzer went off because I got a gift, you know?

All the things that grab our attention here will all go away. Imagine focusing on the Lord with no distractions. Here, God's Word, and we also can do this, can urge one another to keep our eyes on the Lord. The distractions are many, aren't there? Imagine what it will be like when there aren't any. Is there anything to distract these 24 elders from their view of the Lord?

No. This is wonderful stuff. This is amazing stuff. And there's more to be seen and understood as we proceed through this passage. Other thoughts, questions, bafflements? Is it clear or overwhelming? Yes. Both, right? Alright, let's pray. Lord, as we look at this picture that John begins to paint, We thank you for the hope that we have in you for that one day when you, Lord, will be calling us home.

We'll be face-to-face with you where there will be no distractions. Where time as we know it and our bodies as we know them will be no more. And it will be a very different kind of experience all together. And we thank you for the description that you've laid out here. For the wonderment in it and the hope that we have in it. And for the relationship that we can have with you unfettered and unbroken. We just give you praise, in Jesus' name, amen.