A New Day in Heaven

God created this earth and everything in it according to His plan and purpose. We may not understand all that He is doing, but this is the way He wanted it. It’s His universe and He’s in charge, and we are to worship Him because of it.

Hi everyone, I’m Tammy Becker.  Welcome to the Almighty God & Gospel Girl Podcast.  This is week eight into our series of Revelation and our podcast today is titled: A New Day in Heaven.   My podcast today will be based on the reading of Revelation 4.  And if you would like to follow along with the notes or maybe you would like to find the links to anything mentioned in the podcast today, you can go to the link in the description or by visiting www.youministries.com and visiting the corresponding page.  As we get started today, I would like to remind you of my disclaimer, that as always…do not take my word, or anyone’s word for what you read…get yourself in the Bible and let God discern His Word to you.  I am only human and make many mistakes and do not claim to know or understand everything in the Bible…I just hope by bringing out this study that your interest is sparked enough to get into God’s Word and begin to deep dive on your own.

Where did the church go? From Revelation 4 through the end of the book, the church isn’t mentioned again, even once. The church goes off the air … because it went up in the air! At the end of Revelation 3, the Lord called the church to meet Him in the air. The saints entered the opened door to heaven and is now with Christ (see John 14:3). When we see her again, she will be a bride, adorned for her Husband.

During the Philadelphian period of the church, the long-awaited Rapture happened (see 1 Thessalonians 4:17 and 1 Corinthians 15:51) and the so-called “church” left behind is just an organization. This false church, called the great harlot, will meet again the next Sunday after the Rapture and will hardly miss a member. Why? Because they only professed to be Christians but never were. They will go through the Great Tribulation Period. God made promises to the real church, that He would deliver us from judgment. Beginning in Revelation 6, these judgments begin but are not meant for the church. If the church remained in the world, it would run contrary to God’s grace.

Chapter 4 begins a whole new day in Revelation. In chapter 1 we saw Jesus, high and lifted up. In chapters 2-3, we saw “the things that are” in the lives of the church age, and now we’re going to look at what comes “after these things,” an entirely different scene and subject.

When the church arrives in heaven, it is no longer called “the church.” Afterall, the word “church” isn’t a name but a definition, meaning “a group of people called out of the world.” In heaven, the church is represented by 24 elders.

In this third and final section of Revelation (chapters 4-22), let’s remind ourselves that Jesus Christ is central. He directs all the events as He brings them to a successful but determined conclusion. He is there, “the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne” (7:17). Jesus Christ is a Lamb, slain for the sins of the world. He’s the Lamb who is our Shepherd, guiding us to springs of living water. But now He is also the One who will judge.

After Jesus snatches His church out of the world, the scene follows us from earth to heaven. This is a radical change—and a journey only hosted by the Holy Spirit. Only He could describe things in heaven as easily and clearly as what was happening on earth. If a person wrote about heaven, we would hear about all kinds of wild and startling things. (That’s one way you can tell a book is false.) You don’t have the sensational here in Revelation. We simply move to heaven, and the scene is awe-inspiring, but it lacks the sensational we would have put in it.

The church is now the priesthood of believers with the Great High Priest, Jesus our Savior. Heavenly scenes and creatures greet us in this section (chapters 4–5) before our attention is drawn back to earth where, at the opening of the Great Tribulation, the four horsemen are to ride.

What does the Holy Spirit reveal to John about heaven? What do we see?

We see the throne of God. As the door to heaven opens, we first find our way to God. Just imagine! The first thing we see is Jesus Christ in His threefold office of Prophet, Priest, and King, and we fall down in worship of Jesus Christ as God. In John’s vision, he enters heaven with his senses engaged. He sees and hears things as he walks through the open door.

This is one of the four open doors in Revelation:

1. The Lord Jesus, talking to the church in Philadelphia, says, “I have set before you an open door” (3:8) that describes a door of opportunity for giving out the Word of God.
2. The Lord stands before the door to your heart and knocks, asking you if you hear His voice. Open the door and He will come in and fellowship with you (3:20).
3. This open door in heaven (4:1) is the way to God through Jesus Christ.
4. Heaven opens again at the end of the Great Tribulation and out comes Jesus Christ on a white horse, ready to judge all unrighteousness and rebellion against God and to establish His Kingdom at last.

The open door to heaven has always been the Lord Jesus Christ. He also is the One who will come to the door of your heart—that is the wonder and glory of it all.

“Come up here” is heaven’s invitation to John, and it is an invitation to all of the fellowship who know Christ as Savior. John is saying in effect, “We heard it, we saw it, and how we’re letting you know how you can have fellowship with Jesus Christ too, and one of these days you will be going up through that open door” (see also 1 John 1:3).

And it all begins for the church at the Rapture. The Greek word for “caught up” is harpazo, meaning “caught up, raptured, or snatched up.” The sound that signals this amazing event is a voice that sounds like a trumpet. Of course, it’s Jesus’ voice, calling the church to meet Him in the air (see also 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). It pulls John up, and someday it will pull us up.

“Come up here,” Jesus says, “and I will show you things which must take place after this [for the church]” (v. 1).

At once John was in the Spirit and saw God’s throne in heaven. “Immediately” describes how brief the time, one of the characteristics of the Rapture. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15:52 that we will be caught up “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye” (a 1/1000 of a second). That’s how quick the Rapture is going to be—immediately, straightway, at once.

John was found “in the Spirit.” The Holy Spirit guides John into this new truth and shows him things to come (see John 16:13).

WE SEE GOD’S THRONE

Now for the first time, John sees the throne, the center of attraction. God’s throne represents the universal sovereignty and rule; it means He is in control. This is the center of this universe and the Lord is in charge of all events here. (See also Psalm 47:8, 97:2, 103:19; Ezekiel 1:26-28; Hebrews 1:3, 12:2.) The throne of grace now becomes a throne of judgment.

This is God the Father’s throne, but the three persons of the Trinity are distinguished: God the Holy Spirit (4:2, 5), God the Father (4:3), and God the Son (5:5). The Trinity is on the throne.

All we see here is beautiful, vibrant color. John could distinguish no form of a person on the throne, only the brilliance and brightness of precious stones. The jasper stone was the last stone identified in the breastplate of the high priest (see Exodus 28:20). It was first in the foundation of the New Jerusalem and also the first seen in the wall of the New Jerusalem (21:18-19). It was mostly purple, some say it’s like a diamond.

The “sardius stone” is the sixth stone in the foundation of the New Jerusalem (see 21:20). A fiery red stone, the sardius was the first in the breastplate of the high priest, representing the tribe of Reuben, the firstborn of Jacob. And Christ is the Son of God, the firstborn from the dead.

“Rainbow” is the Greek word iris, which can also mean “halo.” Usually a rainbow is many colors, but here it’s emerald green (see Ezekiel 1:28). After the judgment of the Flood, the rainbow appeared as a reminder of God’s covenant not to destroy the earth again with a flood (Genesis 9:13-15). Now it appears before the judgment of the Great Tribulation as a reminder that God will not use a flood again.

THE 24 ELDERS

Around the throne sit 24 elders dressed in white, like in the righteousness of Christ, with gold crowns on their heads. These are representatives, just like elders in our churches today appointed to rule and represent the church (see Titus 1:5). These elders stand for the total church from Pentecost to the Rapture. (One more indication this is the church in heaven.) Their crowns speak of their role as rulers with Christ (see 1 Corinthians 6:3). Crowns are also given as rewards (see 2 Timothy 4:8; James 1:12; 1 Peter 5:4) when the bema judgment, the judgment seat of Christ, takes place. The rumbling of thunder and flashes of lightning speak to the judgment that is coming.

A GLASS SEA AND FOUR CREATURES

“A sea of glass” (v. 6) describes its appearance—calm and restful. The sea represents the holiness and righteousness of God bringing the church to its rest, no longer tossed on a stormy sea.

Four living creatures (zoa, from which we get the word zoo) also surround the throne. Like the cherubim and seraphim (Ezekiel 1:5-10 and Isaiah 6:2-3), these living creatures are alert and aware, with eyes before and behind.

These four creatures identify with the four Gospels. The first is a lion, representing the Lord Jesus as the King. Everything He does in the Gospel of Matthew He does as the King (see Genesis 49:9-10; Revelation 5:5). The second living creature is an ox, the servant animal domesticated. In the Gospel of Mark, Christ is presented as the Servant who can do the job. The third living creature has a man’s face. The Gospel of Luke presents the Lord Jesus as the Son of Man. He is humanity incarnate. The fourth living creature is like a flying eagle, a picture of the deity of Christ as seen in the Gospel of John.

THE FIRST GREAT WORSHIP SCENE WE SEE IN HEAVEN

Each of the creatures has six wings and circles the throne, they say day and night, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come” (v. 8).

They echo what Jesus Christ said about Himself in Revelation 1:8, “I am the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End.” He is the present, the past, and the future. The creatures worship the Creator as the triune God: “Holy, holy, holy.” Worship is the eternal activity of heaven. They continually give Jesus glory, honor and thanks for His attributes, because of who He is.

The elders, too, fall down before God’s throne, worshipping God for who He is and what He has done. They cast their crowns before Jesus’ feet as an act of submission and worship. He’s the only One worthy to wear a crown.

They acknowledge Jesus Christ as God and Creator of all things, “You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created” (v. 11).

In closing…

God created this earth and everything in it according to His plan and purpose. We may not understand all that He is doing, but this is the way He wanted it. It’s His universe and He’s in charge, and we are to worship Him because of it.

NEXT WEEK: What’s the big deal about the scroll?