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East Ridge SDA Church

Exploring Revelation 4 and 5

Steven Grabiner

The Throne

The Sanctuary

The Conflict

Tale of Two Women

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.

Series

Exploring Revelation 4 and 5

The Sanctuary

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

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