Scripture Reading

Revelation 1:1–3

“The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending His angel to His servant John, who bore witness to the Word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that He saw. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.”

Revelation 4:1–11

“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.’ At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven with one seated on the throne. 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. 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. From the throne came flashes of lightning and rumblings and peals of thunder. And before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God. 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. 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. 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.’ And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, 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, ‘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.'”

Now we will be reading from Revelation 5 directly, so if you want to leave your Bibles open.

Introduction: Christ Revealed

We started in our series a ways back, and we said our goal was to see Christ revealed. The book is about Christ, not merely from Him. Then we said it would explore the Old Testament, and we will do that again today. More than two-thirds of the 400 verses in Revelation are allusions or quotes from the Old Testament. If you want to know what the book of Revelation says, you must know what your Old Testament says.

And then thirdly, we said it was the truth applied. God blesses all who listen to the message and obey what it says. It’s not supposed to be just this concept of mystical information. We’re supposed to live it out in some fashion.

A quick review. What we’ve said so far: the book is not a mystery to be solved. Don’t come to it looking at it like that. It is to reveal Christ and reveal what will happen to the church in the world throughout its existence in the world. It is directed to the church and God’s servants (Revelation 1:1, 11). It has applications for us, and it had applications for the first Christians. It wasn’t a book that has these way-off things about the future, because they had to be able to live it and benefit by it. It is meant to be lived, not merely pondered, not merely quoted, not merely referenced in some of its extreme language. It is not a horoscope or a crystal ball that we come to for some kind of mystical insights about the future.

And primarily, it is written to encourage Christians in their time of suffering, to encourage them to endure in their time of suffering.

We dealt with it a little bit, and I don’t want to be too repetitious this morning, but this book was probably written in about 90 A.D., which is when Domitian was the emperor of Rome, and he was the first emperor to impose widespread persecution against the Christians. Nero was a madman who persecuted the Christians in Rome, but they didn’t get to all these other places. Domitian was the first to do that, and he encouraged people—in fact, required people—to refer to him as Lord and God. And so this was the context of the book’s writing, and it bears that understanding still today.

Joel Beeke says that John tells us in Revelation 1 that the purpose of this book is to give comfort to the church in the midst of what will happen in their future. Revelation prepares God’s people in all ages for the tribulations and sufferings that they must endure. They must endure.

We’ve said many times, and Jacob has brought it out, and Jason, but the Bible is pretty clear. We spent some time last week. There is persecution. Christians endure persecution. It’s part of being a Christian. You compromise so much that you never have any persecution; it’s probably a good sign that you’re not living biblically in your life.

The Majesty and Mystery of the Throne

Now, in chapter 4, we return to the intense symbolism that we first encountered in chapter 1. There we saw Jesus with flaming eyes and glowing feet, white hair, and a sword protruding from His mouth, if you’ll remember or go back and read. Here again in chapter 4, we’re surrounded by graphic images that portray both mystery and majesty.

Now, the majesty can be seen in the way John describes the occupant of the throne. Different versions use different words here, but verse 3: “He had the appearance of jasper and carnelian.” And when you look at these stones and you flesh them out and you really see them, basically they’re just these stones that when you reflect light on them, they just give off all these kinds of different colors. And He’s not seeing a person sitting there, because God isn’t described that way. He’s seeing this incredible, blinding, multicolored kind of effect from looking at God.

The Bible bears this out in 1 Timothy. Paul says, “Our Lord Jesus Christ is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal dominion” (1 Timothy 6:15–16). This is the majesty of God. We see Him and yet we do not see Him, because His majesty and His greatness extends beyond. And by the way, there was no collusion between my message and the songs today of how they focused on the greatness of God, which is really what’s going on in this scene.

The majesty is seen in this inability to describe God completely. And the mystery is seen in the 24 elders and who they represent. Now, most commentators say they represent the universal church throughout all time. And whoever they are, they are not some kind of divine beings, because they fall down repeatedly to worship God in this scene.

Now, these images combine to give us a glimpse into a symbolic representation of God’s throne room. This is not what heaven looks like. This is a symbolic representation of God in His greatness.

Why We Stress “Symbolic”

Now, you may wonder why I stress symbolic versus actual. And as you will see, that isn’t my solitary perspective after a while. But here’s one of some of the reasons why we stress symbolic.

First, John is using human language to describe the indescribable. Whenever we think we remember—we just talked about this series of God’s glory, how He’s not a man, how He doesn’t look like a man except in Christ, in the physical body of Christ—He goes beyond description. John is never— we just read that passage right there; it says God cannot be seen. How do you describe someone that you cannot lay your eyes upon? It is a symbolic representation. And John is trying to describe the indescribable.

Now, in this text, it is God the Father. Later on, the Son comes into the picture in chapter 5. The spirits are represented by the flaming torches, a symbolism obviously. Also by the seven spirits of God, which was in chapter 1. It’s symbolic language.

Secondly, rather, God as Spirit has no body upon which to sit on a throne. It is a metaphor. It’s a manner of speaking about the greatness of God in this scene.

And then fourthly, John uses language—Old Testament language. Remember, I mentioned just a moment ago that if you want to know what it means, go back to the Old Testament. Because here in this scene, John is pulling into it images from the Old Testament.

Old Testament Images in the Throne Room

So look at and listen to these passages.

Exodus 19:16 – “On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightning and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled.”

Several connotations there, but notice: John says he saw the throne, and coming from the throne, from God’s presence, were these thunderings and these lightnings. And when you go back to Exodus, you’ll find it mentions the fire burning and twirling around on the mountain. And again, we see in the torches—fire. These are symbols of God’s presence and His glory.

And one of those Old Testament images of God’s glory was experienced by Ezekiel. In Ezekiel 1:10, he says about these creatures that were with God. And notice the similarity between Revelation and Ezekiel: “As for the likeness of their faces, each had a human face. The four had the face of a lion on the right side, the four had the face of an ox on the left side, and the four had the face of an eagle.” Four faces on one creature, and here we have four different creatures with those faces. He’s drawing from the Old Testament. And these creatures, by the way, are part of the mystery, because they appear in this book of Revelation 14 times. Again and again, we read about these four creatures who are in the immediate presence of God, and it’s part of the mystery that goes.

Then they also have a similarity—these ones in Revelation—because it says, verse 8: “The four living creatures, each of them had six wings.” The other place you see that is in Isaiah 6. “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above Him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings. With two He covered His face, and with two He covered His feet, and with two He flew. And one called to another and said, ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory.'”

They covered their eyes because of the greatness of God. They covered their feet because of the Old Testament symbolism of the holiness of God. And then with two they flew. And notice their song. We sing this song sometimes. “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty.” And I always, every time we sing it—and I know this is probably my perception—but I wonder whether we understand we’re singing the actual Scriptures, that according to the Scriptures is what these creatures sing in the presence of God. We’re joining in their worship when we sing, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty.”

These are the kinds of things that are happening in these texts. And John is pulling all these Old Testament images into this description, this symbolic description of the greatness of God, because there are no adequate human words.

You know this, I’m sure. And I would like to catalog it sometime. But every now and again you’ll find out that there’s some language, that there’s no word. You can’t translate a word in this language into any other language. And that’s kind of the way it is here. The language of heaven is required to be able to explain God in all of His greatness and majesty. And what John does is bring all these images together to talk about the greatness of God.

Guarding Against the Danger of Over-Explanation

Now this scene, as I have said, is drawn from the graphic symbolism of the Old Testament. It is an imagery so varied and involved that we must guard against trying to resolve all the mystery of these categories. Resolve all the mystery.

Now what is our worship going to look like if the mystery of God is removed from it? If we figure Him out? If we’ve got Him perfectly defined? There’s mystery here. And sometimes, in this book especially, and especially in our culture, we’re always looking to find out what this means and what that means. And this is our first danger of distraction. When you’re exploring a book of Revelation, the very human tendency—we are inquisitive creatures and we want the images explained. “Tell me what this means.” We are drawn to the mysticism and we look for cryptic meanings. And you see this—you can see it if you follow those people. They’re always saying this means and that means. And there’s a value to that to an extent. But there is also the fact that we become distracted from the central message. We become distracted from the central person in the message. And this is the sovereign God. And more specifically, as we see in this chapter and the next, the worship of that God.

What is being portrayed here is not some mystical system we should try to unpack and unravel, but we are to stand in awe of this being in the center of the picture who is so great that thunder and lightning rumbles from His throne. And the creatures around Him are bowing down in worship and adoration. Recall the passage above. The main feature of this passage is the sovereignty of God. Remember that passage a moment ago. “The only sovereign,” Paul says. “The only one who rules and reigns.”

Wayne Grudem defines God’s sovereignty as His exercise of rule as sovereign or king over His creation. This is the concept of the throne. The very idea of a throne. In human understandings is a position of authority and power that cannot be questioned, cannot be resisted. In humans it can be, but it cannot be that way in God. And because of this, God is worthy of worship in a way that no human or no other creature is.

Now John Calvin, as you may recall, said that the human fallen—the fallen human heart—is an idol factory. We’re constantly finding substitutes for God. Things that become more important to us than Him. And we must guard against this in our lives. And one of the ways we can do it is by not falling into this trap of trying to figure out all these details and just stand in awe of this being in the center of the picture from whom all things exist. This is important.

Three Areas of God’s Supremacy That Demand Worship

Look again at verses 8–11:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come. And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever. 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, ‘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.'”

Notice that phrase three times. First is “who was and is and is to come.” Then “who lives forever and ever.” And He comes back to it again. “Who lives forever and ever.” This is the greatness of our majestic God. 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, “Worthy are You, O Lord, our God, 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.”

There are three connotations of worship arising in these texts, and I want you to see these three areas of God’s supremacy that demand worship.

1. His Intrinsic Otherness

Now Jason touched on this the other week. Holy. What does holy mean? In human categories we tend to think of right and wrong, good and bad. And that’s true. But the greatest definition of God’s holiness is what sets Him apart from every other part of His creation. There is God and there is the creation. They are different. He is unlike it in every sense of the word. It all sprang from Him by His decree, by His will, but it’s not like Him.

And we must be very careful. We live in a culture that believes in pantheism. God is in everything. God is in everyone. That’s pantheism. That’s not biblical. Christianity: God is separate from His creation. He stands apart from it and rules over it.

Yes, let’s see if I can give you those heavy terms again. God transcends the universe, meaning He is outside of it, but He is also imminent in that He interacts with His creation in ways that we don’t completely understand. He is not like His creation. And this is the basis of worship: to recognize He’s different. He’s unique. He is solitary in the universe. There’s none like Him. It’s what He has said again and again in His Word.

2. His Creative Power

Note verse 11 again: “You are worthy to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things. And by Your will, they existed and were created.”

Again, I’m thankful today that I can refer to the men in our church who are leading these opening services and commend them for their reference to Scripture. But Hebrews, which I think Jason mentioned a few weeks ago—Hebrews 1:3: “He is the radiance. Jesus is the radiance of the glory of God, the exact imprint of His nature, and He upholds the universe by the Word of His power.” He didn’t just create it. He’s upholding it moment by moment through the power of this great God that we serve. And this is why we worship.

Now this is very important later, but I want to read this passage. This concept of God’s total control of all things. That’s what sovereignty means. He’s king. He’s ruler. He reigns in the universe. He doesn’t just stand by watching things happen and hope it turns out right. He is reigning in His universe. And this is embraced, for example, in Psalm 33:

“By the Word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of His mouth all their hosts. He spoke and it came to be; He commanded and it stood firm. The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; He frustrates the plans of the people. The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of His heart to all generations.”

Notice, creation tied directly to control. God’s control of the world.

“Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, on those who hope in His steadfast love, that He may deliver their soul from death and keep them alive in famine. Our soul waits for the Lord; He is our help and our shield, for our heart is glad in Him because we trust in His holy name.”

This is the God we serve Him. This is the focus. This is the purpose of this chapter. See this great God who is being worshipped for the great things He has done.

3. His Redemptive Acts in Christ

So first, there is His intrinsic otherness. And secondly, there is His creative power. But then when we get over to Revelation 5:9, and you see these creatures and they’re falling down again, and they’re before the throne, and this time before the Lamb—Jesus has entered the picture, and we’ll explore this more later as we go. But verse 9: “They sang a new song, saying, ‘Worthy are You to take the scroll.'”

First is His intrinsic otherness. Second is His creation, His power in creation. Thirdly is His redemptive acts in Christ. This is why we worship God.

“They sang a new song, saying, ‘Worthy are You to take the scroll and to open its seals, for You were slain, and by Your blood You ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and You have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.’ Then I looked and heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, ‘Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!'”

And may I call your attention to another song that we sing, where we sing that song—we’re singing Scripture. We’re singing with the creatures in heaven every time we do it.

Revelation 5:13: “And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, ‘To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever.’ And the four living creatures said, ‘Amen!’ And the elders fell down and worshiped.”

And in this section the worship is directly connected to Christ’s redemptive work. He has saved us from our sins, and this is a motive and a basis for worship.

Giving God Our Best

Now Leon Morris, in his commentary on Revelation, makes an observation here related to this idea of sovereignty. So all that we’ve said so far, the picture is about the sovereign God who deserves the best of our worship. Not just half-hearted, indifferent—the best.

Now I understand that we’re all individuals, we’re all different, and my best might not be your best. The question is: individually, do I give God my best? Am I inclined to that? And that’s a tricky question, because we all fail, therefore we cannot say we all give God our best all the time. But the motivation must be, the question must be: am I conscious of my need to give Him the best there is, because He’s worthy and deserving of that kind of worship? I must always ask myself that question as a Christian.

So here’s the picture: it’s the sovereign God who deserves to be worshipped. And yet, what is the greater message beyond that picture? What is the implications of that picture beyond worship? And here’s what Leon Morris starts us on a thought here.

He says this: “The voice like a trumpet in chapter 1 promises to show John what must take place after this. The word must is important. The concern of this book is not with things which, as it happens, will take place—like a horoscope, like a crystal ball, like an idea that says well things are going to happen and this is what they are. No, they must happen. He says it is not with things as it happens that will take place, as though the future were absorbing interest in itself. It is rather taken up with things which must happen. The outworking of the divine will. God is in supreme control. John is not writing about matters of chance, what may or may not happen, but events which will certainly occur. They are part of the divine plan.”

And this is the concept of God’s sovereignty, and why we need to know of this sovereignty.

Grant Osborne, in his commentary on Revelation, makes a similar observation. He says: “The content of the ensuing chapters is described as ‘what must take place after this.’ This is the same language as in Revelation 1:1 and 19, with emphasis on the must of divine necessity. The events in the central section of the book, from here to chapter 16, are dictated by God’s sovereign will. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the absolute sovereign over history.”

I don’t know if you’ve ever heard this little saying, but history is His story. God is unfolding the world. He is doing things to redeem His people and to glorify His name.

Inevitable Suffering and God’s Sovereign Control

Now why is that important? Well, let’s tie these two thoughts together. Inevitable suffering and God’s sovereign control.

If the book is written to encourage Christians in their times of suffering, God has to be in control for it to mean anything, to give us any encouragement or strength. Now it is true, and all of us can agree, we don’t understand what God does. But there’s a big difference between saying “I don’t understand what He’s doing” and suggesting that He’s not working and He’s not in control of things. Things happen in the world we do not understand, but God is never out of control.

If the book is written to encourage Christians in their sufferings to trust God’s promise to keep and sustain them, the promise is empty unless God has the power and total control of all things.

Now you know, I’ve said this before. Do you pray? And if the answer is yes, what are you praying for? Because if God isn’t in control, your prayers are in vain. You’re saying, “Well God, I wish you would do this, but I know you can’t.” That’s silly. We see these signs popping up in our valley now: “God save America.” Well, that’s a worthy prayer, but it’s worthless unless God is in control and has the power to save America. And this is so fundamental.

The book begins with this picture of God. It declares—this section of the book begins with this picture of God and His sovereignty and His worthiness of worship—and the goal is to connect His sovereignty to the inevitable suffering that comes to the Christian. I said it last week in passing: you’re never going to survive the suffering and difficulties of this world if you don’t believe God’s in control. You will always be trying to figure it out and fix it yourself. This is so very important.

Now listen, this is important. God is in control. He’s in control. I don’t feel like it. It doesn’t look like it. He’s in control, if we’re going to affirm the Bible.

Listen to Psalm 115:

“Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to Your name give glory, for the sake of Your steadfast love and Your faithfulness. Why should the nations say, ‘Where is their God?’ Our God is in the heavens; He does all that He pleases. He does all that He pleases.”

Psalm 135:5–6:

“I know that the Lord is great, and that our God is above all gods. Whatever the Lord pleases, He does, in heaven and earth, in the seas and in all the deeps.”

And notice the echo of Revelation 5:13—every creature in heaven, under earth, in the sea, everywhere praising and glorifying. God does what He wants, because He’s in control of all things.

Now listen to this passage from the book of Daniel. Now this is very important. Let me pause to say this: the book of Daniel—we believe, all commentators in fact agree with this—the book of Daniel ends like this. God says, “Seal up the words of the book until the time of the end.” You’ve got this great big annotated Bible. You’d think I could find this thing. Daniel 12:9: “He said, ‘Go your way, Daniel, for the words are shut up and sealed until the time of the end.'”

This is the scroll we believe that’s being opened by Christ in this scene in chapter 5, which we will explore more fully next week. He comes, and He’s worthy to open the seals that have sealed up the scroll, and commentators believe that these two things are the same. The scroll that was sealed in Daniel is the one Christ is opening. Daniel is a very important book to Old Testament end time things.

Now notice what he says then in Daniel 4. This is put on the lips of Nebuchadnezzar, the pagan king of Babylon:

“All the inhabitants of the earth are counted as nothing.”

Pause. It does not mean that they’re not valuable. It means that all of them together cannot hinder God from doing what He wants to do in the earth. This is the power and the wonder of the God we serve.

Psalm 2:

“Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying, ‘Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.’ He who sits in the heavens will laugh. The Lord will hold them in derision.”

And if you know your Bible, you know that’s the passage Peter quotes on the day of Pentecost, that the nations were gathered against Christ and God laughed at their roarings and accomplished His purpose of sending Christ to die for our sins. This is the God we serve this morning.

So it doesn’t mean that they aren’t valuable. It means all of them together cannot prevent God from doing what He has ordained to do from eternity past. “He does according to His will among the hosts of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can say to Him, ‘What have You done?’ What are You doing?” Nobody can object to it, because God in His perfect sovereignty and His perfect holiness is doing exactly what needs to be done. He is in control.

God’s Sovereignty Over the Future

Now as we’ve noted in the past, there is a futuristic flavor to this book. We have to be careful with that. But it talks about, “I must show you the things that must come to pass.” They’re futuristic in that sense, and some of them happening in every age of the Christian church. But notice this: God’s sovereignty over the future is demonstrated by His sovereignty over the past, which is seen in His creative and in His redemptive acts.

Did you notice that the worship of chapter 5 regarding Christ—let me read it again:

“Worthy are You to take the scroll and to open its seals, for You were slain, and by Your blood You have ransomed people.”

Past tense. So we have God’s creative works as a basis of worship, and we have His redemptive works as a basis of worship. But the redemptive works, specifically there, is the death of Christ. And as God was sovereign over the death of Christ, He will be sovereign over our lives. This is one of the reasons why children we must understand the need to be delicate and balanced, etc. But Christ did not die by accident. He died by the choice of Father and Son. He gave up His life. He says it again and again: “No one takes it from me.” This is not an accidental death. This is an intentional death that God is in complete and total control of.

And we must understand that the worship which occurs in chapter 5 is directly linked to Christ’s past victory. And notice this, please: it is a victory over the central enduring enemy of humankind and the principal threat to the New Testament church—death.

1 Corinthians 15—when Paul was talking about the resurrection, he says the last enemy to be destroyed will be death. The real enemy we have is not corrupt government or financial insecurity. The real enemy we have is death. Because no matter how much you have, or how much you attain in life, or how much you achieve, or how many accolades you get, there comes a moment when you lay down in the dust of this planet and molder and decay like everything before you. The only thing, the greatest victory Christ has wrought, is over eternal death. And this is exactly what’s got to be conveyed: these New Testament Christians are facing death for their faith. What is the answer? What is the solution? As God was in control of Christ’s death, bringing Him from the grave again, He’s in control of our death, and He will bring us back to stand with Christ for eternity.

Can you say amen this morning? This is the man. But you got to believe that God’s in control in order to be encouraged by that.

Comfort in the Midst of Fiery Trials

Now listen to how William Hendriksen sums things up in his commentary on Revelation. Now I apologize, because you know I get excited—my wife’s always on me about this, slow down. So if I’m too fast this morning, I’m sorry. The wonder of Facebook and recording video is if you miss something, you can go back and watch it again, if you can endure that second experience.

Listen how William Hendriksen sums up these things. He says: “Through the various objects that John beholds, though the various objects that John beholds do not exist in that physical material form, they express an important spiritual truth. Let us not lose ourselves in the interpretation of details. Let us not try to find a deeper meaning when there is none. These chapters do not give us a picture of heaven; they describe the entire universe from the aspect of heaven. The purpose of this vision is to show us in beautiful symbolism that all things are governed by the Lord on His throne. All things must include our trials and tribulations.”

For these New Testament Christians, and for Christians around the world today, and for God forbid but that it might come to us someday. The way you know we’re going to get through this: God’s on His throne. And because He’s on His throne, He is reigning—even when it doesn’t feel like it or look like it.

Now listen to what he says here. And my apologies, because I meant to look this up this morning after going through the message, and I’m afraid to say something that I’m—I’ll say something, and if I’m wrong I have to apologize next week, because I wanted to look at this. But I’m pretty sure I’m right about this.

Listen to what he says. He says this: “All things must include our trials and tribulations. That is the point of why the description of the throne precedes the symbolic prediction of trials and tribulations that the church must experience here on earth. The assurance of this truth should impart comfort to believers in the midst of fiery trials. The throne comes first, so that we can be encouraged about what happens after that.”

Many people come to—and unfortunately, unfortunately pastors can be guilty of portraying the book of Revelation in an alarmist sense. But it’s not supposed to be portrayed in an alarmist sense for the Christian. It is supposed to be portrayed in a comforting sense. God is on His throne.

And the reason I say this—the last reference to the throne in Revelation, unless I’m wrong, is the Great White Throne judgment. After that, notice this also. Go back to that picture. I saw the throne, and there were lightning and thunder and all this stuff, echoing back to Sinai in the Old Testament. And what did the people do? They were afraid of it. And they were so afraid of that manifestation of God’s glory, they said, “Don’t let God talk to us anymore. You talk to us, but we don’t want to hear from God.”

Notice the first image you get of the throne in Revelation is that same kind of majestic scariness that’s got God at a distance. But when you get to Revelation 21 and 22, what do you hear again and again? “God is with His people.” He is with His people. That the Lamb is the light, and God is with His people. The distance of that—that kind of majesty—He’s still majestic, He’s still awesome—but the barrier has been removed.

And this is why at the beginning of the book He gives us this picture of God’s sovereignty: so we can endure through all, and arrive at that new heaven and new earth where God dwells with His people.

Amen. My goodness, I’m sorry if it was too fast. But man, we’re going to have a good journey through this wonderful, incredible book if we keep our eyes on the One sitting on the throne—our sovereign God.

Amen and amen.

Father, thank You.

Series: Revelation in Three Acts
Date: August 30, 2026
Scripture Focus: Revelation 1:1–3; Revelation 4:1–11
Key Passages Referenced: 1 Timothy 6:15–16; Exodus 19:16; Ezekiel 1:10; Isaiah 6; Psalm 33; Psalm 115; Psalm 135:5–6; Psalm 2; Daniel 12:9; Daniel 4; Hebrews 1:3; Revelation 5:9–14; 1 Corinthians 15
Commentators Referenced: Joel Beeke, Wayne Grudem, John Calvin, Leon Morris, Grant Osborne, William Hendriksen