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East Ridge SDA Church

Exploring Revelation 4 and 5

Steven Grabiner

The Throne

What I'd like to do with you this evening and tomorrow morning, tomorrow night, and then again, what is it, Friday morning, is look at Revelation chapter 4 and 5, 2 very important chapters in the book of Revelation that generally we do not pay a large amount of attention to.

For example when we do an evangelistic series we rightly focus on certain chapters.

Chapter 12 is an important chapter, outlines the war in heaven.

Chapter 13 with the Beast and the image of the Beast and the mark of the Beast, very important topics for us as Seventh-day Adventists to be aware of.

Chapter 14, of course, with the 3 angels' messages are very significant for us as a people today.

Chapter 20 with the Millennium and the final destruction of the wicked, that's a very important chapter and usually we in Evangelistic series will touch on those chapters.

Perhaps we'll give an overview of the 7 churches lightly, maybe focus on the seventh church in particular, but we very rarely spend time with Revelation 4 and 5 and for me that's a great loss because Revelation 4 and 5 as many Bible students have come to recognize are really the fountainhead of the entire book of Revelation there's information and setting and threads, verbal threads, ideas that have their origins in chapter 4 and 5 and that are woven out throughout the rest of the book of Revelation.

The entire tapestry of the book of Revelation is drawn from imagery that finds its source in Revelation 4 and 5.

They're of course, they contain slightly different material, but they are an important unit.

And so what I'd like to do with our time together in this 4 sessions that we have is look at Revelation 4 and 5 and how it impacts the rest of the book.

So for example, We'd like to look at Revelation 4 and 5 and how they relate to the great controversy theme, how Revelation 4 and 5 relate to Chapter 12 and 13.

We're going to look at the sanctuary imagery in Revelation 4 and 5 and how that relates throughout the entire book and then on Friday morning like to look at Revelation 4 and 5 and how it relates to Revelation chapter 19.

So we're going to be spending our time, a lot of time, in Revelation 4 and 5 looking at some of the concepts, ideas that will help us rightly understand the rest of the book of Revelation.

And as I said, many people feel like this is the source, fountainhead of the book, and you can understand why.

Revelation 4 and 5 have a first scene that's brought out in the heavenly sanctuary and there's the 4 living creatures and the 24 elders which form a divine council and they appear in strategic places throughout the book.

Chapter 7, chapter 11, chapter 12, chapter 15, chapter 19, they reappear at significant places throughout John's unfolding of the story of the book of Revelation.

In addition to that, in Revelation 4 and 5, as I said, the 4 living creatures, 24 elders, in chapter 5 we see 1 sitting on the throne who has a book, then 1 comes to the 1 on the throne, the Lamb who was slain takes the book and begins to open it and as he opens it, it unfolds into the 6 seals which take us into chapter 6.

Those seals are slightly interrupted we could say with the imagery in chapter 7 the sealing of God's people and then the seventh seal is opened in chapter 8 which leads naturally into the trumpets again introduced by a sanctuary scene the trumpets unfold culminating in Revelation 11 15 through 18 where we find the seventh trumpet fully clarified and sounding, and then we have another sanctuary scene, and then we get into the great controversy imagery in chapter 12 and then following in through the rest of the book.

So in a very real and positive way chapters 4 and 5 are very significant.

Ellen White has a quote where she tells us that we should be studying the fifth chapter of the book of Revelation and I'll get that quote to you over our time together where we should be looking at this chapter chapter 5 she mentions particularly but again, it's connected inseparably with chapter 4 And as we kind of go through these studies together, pardon me, these studies together, it's important for us to realize that Revelation wants to unfold truths to us that will help prepare a people to stand in the day of God.

Oftentimes this group of people is called a final generation.

Now that concept final generation is somewhat controversial within Adventism and Clearly it needs to be more fully defined.

But without question, when Jesus returns, there will be a final generation.

Whoever they are and prayerfully, they will comprise some of us here.

All of us here if the Lord gives us strength in life to that time.

So we may approach the final Jesuit generation from different perspectives but what the viewpoint that I'd like to take us to in our time together in our little mini week of prayer before our annual convention here at Eden Valley is to see how Revelation 4 or 5 and really the entire book draws our mind to the great controversy and the part that we play in that controversy.

It's important for us to understand that the gospel in its fullest will prepare, ultimately prepare, a group of people to live to see Jesus Christ come.

And the gospel itself will finally bring the cosmic conflict, the great controversy, we could call it, to an end.

And so as we're getting into these section here, chapter 4 and 5, we want to ask the question, what is the main theme of the book of Revelation?

Now, of course we could say, well, the main theme is Jesus Christ.

It is after all the revelation of Jesus Christ.

The book of Revelation does have prophetic aspects, we believe that as historicists, where it unfolds events that in broad outline, let me say, that have not yet taken place.

We're able to look back at other events and see how they are fulfilled in the book of Revelation.

But in addition to that, in addition to be a revealing of God, in addition to giving us warnings about very important topics like the mark of the beast and the reception of the seal of God.

The book of Revelation reveals God's plan.

Revelation is the story, the narrative, the story of God's working through the great controversy to bring it to a fulfillment.

I remember listening to Jean-Pauline give a series of talks on Revelation and He described something called surface currents and undercurrents, where there's the top view of the situation, and then there's what's happening kind of behind the scenes.

And that's what I'd like to explore with us, and as we ask this question, what is the main theme?

What's the main motif, main idea in the book of Revelation?

We need to have some guidelines with which we can identify main themes in Scripture.

Well how do we know what a main theme is?

And I'd like to share that there's 2 key points that could help us identify, not just in Revelation, but wherever we're reading, what are some of the main ideas the Bible writers are trying to communicate to us?

And so 2 key points that have been identified as we study scripture and literature in general, and that is, is an idea repeated frequently?

Does the writer come back to a particular point over and over again?

Is an idea mentioned numerous times in the book?

Well, that would clearly give us an idea, a concept, that this is a main theme.

In addition to that, we would also ask the question, does this idea or does this theme surface in unusual places?

Does it come out and we go, wow, I wouldn't have thought of that.

That's another way the Bible writer helps communicate to us something of great importance.

Does it in some way catch us by surprise?

So, frequency of occurrence and is this main idea coming up in unusual contexts.

Now I'd like to say very clearly from my perspective and I think many people would agree with this, I hope you will as well, that 1 of the primary purposes of Revelation is to give us the unfolding story of the great controversy or as it's often called in other literature the cosmic conflict.

The primary purpose of Revelation is to unfold for us this story of the great controversy.

You know, can we, using the book of Revelation, show this?

And I want to be upfront here and let you know that this is going to be a slight shift from our traditional historicist emphasis.

I want to be very clear that I support our historicist understanding.

I'm very supportive of that, grounded in that, and yet I also feel that as we look at the book of Revelation and we realize that Revelation has spoken to God's people since the time of John wrote it and is going to continue to speak to God's people, that perhaps there's another focus in the book of Revelation that we need to be thinking about.

And there's a quotation in a book education that got me thinking on this, and I'll share it with you now.

It says, the central theme of the Bible, the theme about which every other in the whole book clusters, is the redemption plan, the restoration in the image of, excuse me, the restoration in the human soul of the image of God So the main theme of the Bible the theme about which every other theme in the entire Bible clusters is God's plan of redemption.

And integral to that plan, of course, is the great controversy because it's been Satan's accusations about the character of God and about the way God works and Satan's attempt to divorce justice and mercy from 1 another that have brought us into the circumstance we're in.

She continues, the burden of every book in every passage of the Bible is the unfolding of this wondrous theme, man's uplifting, the power of God.

He who grasps this thought has before him an infinite field of study.

He has the key that will unlock to Him the whole treasure house of God's Word." Education 125-126.

And so as we think about this passage from education, again 125-126, that the redemption plan is the big picture and as we're looking at prophecy and as we look at the events unfolding around us in the world today and and we see almost the fabric of society at least in the United States being torn with changes in our societal norms, questions about what constitutes a marriage and numerous other aspects of that.

As we see these changes and we understand the importance of prophecy and being prepared for that prophetic events, we cannot lose sight of the main theme, which is God's plan to save us.

How does God work His will in restoring in the human soul the image of God?

And another quote in the book of education also has helped define my study, not just in the book of Revelation, but in the entire Bible, and that's this.

Continuing again in the book of education, it says, The student, that's you and that's me, should learn to view the word as a whole.

So we're going to look at the entire scripture as a whole and see the relation and to see the relation of its parts.

The student should gain a knowledge of its grand central theme of God's original purpose of the world, of the rise of the great controversy, and of the work of redemption." So notice how she puts all that together.

We need to gain a knowledge of the grand theme, and then she explicates it, she explains it, God's original purpose for the world, the rise of the great controversy, and the work of redemption.

Now she goes on to say, he, the student, should understand the nature of the 2 principles.

There's the heavenly principle of self-denial and self-sacrifice, this circuit of beneficence, of continual giving and continual receiving.

There's that heavenly principle as opposed to the principle of selfishness, of self-seeking.

You have the principle of heaven, which every being in heaven follows, that it's the very nature of God to have this self-sacrificial dimension.

And then, of course, it's the opposite of that on the enemy side of things to try to gain for himself and to try to manipulate and force and coerce and to conceal Interesting thought, you know, it's a book of Revelation There's an openness where the adversary in the book of Revelation is always using deception to foster his works Let me continue the quote again He should understand the nature of the 2 principles that are contending for supremacy and should learn to trace their working through the records of history and prophecy to the great consummation." So what is she saying there?

As we come to scripture and we look at history, we need to see how these 2 antagonistic principles are working out in the world through history and prophecy.

And of course, that's what the book Great Controversy does, traces these principles.

Continuing, he should see how this controversy enters into every phase of human experience.

The controversy between the 2 principles that we see in history and prophecy.

He should see how this controversy enters into every phase of human experience and how in every act of life, he himself reveals the 1 or the other of the 2 antagonistic motives.

The Sanctuary

Father in heaven, thank you for this opportunity to be together, to open your word, to study, to pray with 1 another.

We thank you for the hymns that we've just sung and thank you that we could sit at the feet of Jesus.

We again confess our own unworthiness and your great righteousness.

It's our rich privilege to depend upon that as the reason in which we can come into your presence boldly.

Again, thank you for your goodness, for your grace, and we invite your presence this morning.

Again, if you have your Bibles, turn with me to Revelation 4 and 5.

As I said last night, Revelation 4 and 5 are important for understanding the entire book of Revelation.

These 2 chapters have been called the fountainhead of the entire book.

It's from this original vision that all the other visions are connected throughout the book of Revelation.

And yet we don't give it a lot of attention generally.

And last night we noticed in Revelation chapter 4, starting in verse 1, that John looks, he sees a door open in heaven, he hears a voice like a trumpet saying, come up here, and he comes up into heaven, and then in verse 2, the first thing he sees is a throne standing in heaven, and then 1 sitting on the throne.

In verse 3, and he who was sitting was like a jasper stone and a sardis in appearance and there was a rainbow around the throne like an emerald in appearance.

Verse 4, around the throne were 24 thrones, and upon the thrones I saw 24 elders sitting, clothed in white garments and golden crowns on their heads.

So as John goes up into heaven, first thing he sees is this image of the throne, the rainbow around it.

As we looked last night, usually we could think that this transition from the 7 churches and what's happening on earth up to heaven is to communicate that the earth is in turmoil, but when we get to heaven, everything is in peace and in order.

And I quoted a couple of scholars, Mervyn Maxwell, for example, is 1, and many others who say this.

And of course, it's a very natural reading.

You have the 7 churches, and you have to overcome, and there's all this trouble.

And then all of a sudden, you get to chapter 4, and like, wow, you're in heaven, and it's glorious.

And we'll find in a moment there's 4 living creatures, and then everybody's singing, and it's glorious.

And it seems like, well, that makes a lot of sense.

But when you read Revelation carefully, and we continue to read it, we become re-readers of Revelation, we find that something began in heaven.

And so as we read Revelation more carefully, more in tune with what's happening, we find out that the throne, rather than simply being a symbol of God's sovereignty and, look, I have this under control and don't worry about everything.

There's an aspect to that, don't misunderstand me, but really the throne is under attack in Revelation.

And of course, John draws from many other places.

We think of Isaiah chapter 14, where Lucifer, the son of the morning, wants to place his throne above the stars of God.

And so it's that big picture that John draws on for us as he portrays Revelation.

We also noticed last night that in Revelation, Satan has a throne and Satan's allies have a throne.

God has a throne and God's allies have a throne.

Satan, of course, wants us to be worshippers of him and his throne, and that's the real issue that's taking place In your heart and in my heart, what side of the great controversy we're on?

So in every act of life, we're revealing 1 of 2 antagonistic powers.

Now, this morning, I want to look at something else.

Sorry to put pressure on you so early in the morning.

If you're uncomfortable, you're free to leave.

So I drew earlier, and this is a very childish diagram, but unfortunately, my art skills are childish.

So This little red box in the center is just to create the image of the throne for us.

The 1 sitting on the throne is like Jasper and Sardis, which is a red color, and appear.

So let's just, for imagination's sake, this is God's throne.

And then around the throne is an emerald rainbow.

Of course, the rainbow, when you think of the rainbow and we go back to the book of Genesis, Genesis chapter 9, verses 12 through 17, where God said the rainbow is a sign of His covenant, right?

When we're discouraged, when we are discouraged and we wanna sit at the feet of Jesus, we wanna pray, by faith we can see the throne and we can see the rainbow.

And I have a couple of quotes I'm going to read in a moment.

By the way, and Ellen White calls this rainbow of, It's a rainbow of promise encircling the throne.

It's interesting that it's the color of emerald.

And on the high priest's vestment that the high priest wore in the ancient sanctuary, the emerald stone was the symbol of the tribe of Judah, which was the kingly tribe.

But it's, again, also a sign of God's rule, which is contested.

We just read also that there are 24 thrones on the outside.

And then a little bit later on in Revelation, down in verse 6 and 7, we find out that there are 4 living creatures around the throne.

So just with this diagram, little schematic picture for us, You know that we can see that there's a center, then there's an outward movement of circles, right?

And then we get to chapter 5, we'll find that there's this numerous angelic host that surrounds it, And then at the end of chapter 5, we find that there's every created being surrounded.

So we have this ever widening sphere of circles going out.

And that really needs to be the center of our life.

This is the center of the universe, and from which everything flows, from which life flows out from God to the entire universe.

And of course, praise and adoration flow from outward back into God, who of course reflects it back out to the universe.

This constant, as Ellen White describes it, this circuit of beneficence, Constantly giving, receiving, giving, receiving, giving, receiving.

And that's how God wants our lives to be as well.

And so we see here in Revelation 4 this throne room scene.

Let's look a little bit further, verse 5, Revelation 4 and verse 5.

It says, And out from the throne come forth flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder.

And there were 7 lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the 7 spirits of God.

And before the throne, there was something like a sea of glass, like crystal.

And in the center and around the throne, 4 living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind.

Then he goes on and describes those living creatures.

So, before the throne, somewhere before the throne, are also the 7 lamps of fire and then further on down someplace somewhere before the throne is sea of glass.

Not sure how to draw that so maybe I won't even attempt.

Somewhere before that's the sea of glass.

And as we begin to look at this, of course it reminds us of what Old Testament illustration?

Of course it reminds us of the sanctuary.

And the sanctuary is very important in the Book of Revelation.

In fact, the sanctuary runs throughout the entire Book of Revelation.

The Conflict

If you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me back to Revelation chapters 4 and 5.

It's from volume 9 of the Testimonies on page 266 and 267.

Volume 9, page 266 and 267, in which it says, the fifth chapter of Revelation needs to be closely studied.

It is of great importance to those who shall act a part in the work of God for these last days." So here we have divine counsel particularly on this chapter, chapter 5 of Revelation.

She continues to say, those who have permitted their minds to become beclouded in regard to what constitutes sin are fearfully deceived.

To become beclouded or confused as to what constitutes sin.

Unless they make a decided change, they will be founting wanting when God pronounces judgment upon the children of men.

They have transgressed the law, broken the everlasting covenant, and they will receive according to their works." Now, it's just interesting to me in light of what we were studying this morning about Revelation 4 and 5, and my suggestion that we need to look at the first part here, this fountainhead of the Book of Revelation, as introducing for us the beginning of the Day of Atonement, the beginning of the investigative judgment.

And this counsel in Volume 5, excuse me, Volume 9 of the Testimonies, where she encourages us to study this chapter carefully and then connects it with the last days and connects it with the time of the judgment.

Now that quotation by itself wouldn't conclude that, but it's certainly an interesting support in that direction.

Whatever we clearly need to study the chapter carefully because it does have a tremendous amount of meaning for us.

Something else I'd like to say is earlier today when we were talking about chapter 4 and 5 and we talked about the 4 living creatures and we talked about the 24 elders.

There's a quotation from the book, Story of Redemption, which I found very interesting.

4 heavenly angels always accompanied the Ark of God in all its journeyings, to guard it from all danger and to fulfill any mission required of them in connection with the Ark.

So here on earth when the ark, wherever the ark went, of course we know on top of the ark, there were 2 angels.

But here in Story of Redemption, Ellen White says, wherever the ark went on Earth, there were 4 heavenly angels surrounding it.

And of course, In heaven, we see these 4 living creatures, which are cherubim.

If we read Ezekiel chapter 1 and Ezekiel chapter 10 and the 4 living creatures in the book of Ezekiel, we make a very close connection between the living creatures in Revelation and in the book of Ezekiel as being cherubim, angelic beings.

1 other thing that I just wanted to share as well.

This morning when I drew my little diagram of the concentric circles that we see in the sanctuary.

At the end, in the image here in Revelation 4 and 5, it starts with the throne in the center, and then there's the rainbow of promise around it.

And that rainbow is to encourage us when we're discouraged, we need enlightenment, we need guidance.

Then around that, the 4 living creatures, and then of course the 24 elders, and ultimately all the host of the angelic beings, and then finally a larger circle that includes every created being.

And as we were talking about that, and as we were discussing the imagery here of the throne, it's often thought that in the earthly sanctuary, let me just diagram that for us.

You're familiar, of course, with the earthly courtyard.

And in the earthly courtyard, which was a rectangle, Then we had the sanctuary proper, which was also a rectangle.

Then it was divided into a rectangle and a square.

As you would come into the sanctuary, familiar with this of course, there was the altar of burnt offering, and there was a laver.

And then when you walked into the first apartment, What did we find there?

Seven-branch candlestick and the altar of incense, which we see in Revelation 4, the seven-branch candlestick, at least.

And then in Chapter 8, we see the altar of incense in the book of Revelation, and then we see a throne.

Now, in my description, there is no, or in the book of Revelation, there seems to be 1 article of furniture missing.

Table of showbread, which, of course, would be over here, opposite the lamp stand.

Now, it's interesting about the table of showbread.

In its construction, it had a border around it.

In the King James, it describes those borders as crowns.

Some individuals, Mervyn Maxwell and others, individuals that I highly respect, very godly individuals, have suggested the idea that the table of showbread functions as an illustration of God's throne.

And that what you're seeing in Revelation 4 is not the throne of God with the ark, but the table of showbread.

Now, the weakness with that, of course, is Ellen White's very clear, and she says that you're gonna see the emerald around the throne, and remember that quote from this morning, beneath that rainbow is what?

So she's very clear that the throne that has a rainbow around it is the Ark.

Every place the throne and the rainbow is mentioned together in Ellen White's writings, it draws us to the Ark, which would be here.

But some individuals also say there was 2 borders around it, and King James calls them crowns.

Of course, the altar of incense had a border around it or a crown, and there were 2 piles of bread on the table of showbread.

Series

Exploring Revelation 4 and 5

The Sanctuary

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

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