John at the throne

John still before the Throne of God

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

In Revelation chapter 4, we had talked about what John saw around the throne of God. This is where John is taking up. In fact, I'll just read that from Revelation chapter 4, verse 1. After these things, excuse me, I have a cough drop in my mouth. After these things, I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven, and the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, Come up here, and I will show you things which must shortly take place after this. So after John is done dealing with uh the history of the church and uh dealing with the seven churches in age minor, which is the history of the church, then John is raptured, taken out of the earth, and taken to heaven, just like the church will be taken out before the tribulation period begins. And this is before the tribulation period begins. And when John first gets to heaven, John describes what's going on in heaven. And um in verse 2 he says, And immediately I was in the spirit, and behold, a throne set in heaven, and one set on the throne, and he who sat there sat there, and we have talked about this in another video, about John seeing um seeing God sitting on the throne, seeing his appearance, and things like that. And it says that then in verse 4 it says, And around the throne were twenty-four uh thrones, and on the throne saw I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white robes, and they had crowns of gold on their head, and from the throne proceeded lightnings, thunders, and voices. Seven lamps of fire were burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God. Isaiah talks about the seven spirits of God. Before the throne there was a sea of glass, like crystal, and in the midst of the throne, around the throne were four living creatures full of eyes in front and in back. The first living creature was like a lion, the second living creature like a calf, and the third living creature had a face like a man, and the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle. Four living creatures, each having six wings, uh, were full of eyes around and within, and they did not rest day or night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, 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 sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall before him, who sets on the throne, worships him, who lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before him, saying, You are the worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for you have created all things, and by your will they exist and were created. And then it goes into chapter five. In chapter five, uh, we did a video on talking about uh this is the first uh ceremony that the church must be a part of when they get to heaven, and that is where Christ takes the uh Jesus takes the scroll from the hands of uh of uh of God and will uh begin the introduction into the tribulation period. Um, what John is seeing here, he says that he sees first off uh the 24 elders around the throne. I believe they represent the old and the new covenant. I believe twelve are twelve leaders of the tribe of Israel, and then uh the other twelve are the twelve apostles, and so they represent the old covenant and the new covenant. Then he sees, he sees a sea of glass in front of God, and this represents God's purity and righteousness, and uh why that is important to understand is I remember that I was in a vision one time and I was in heaven and I experienced the peace of God. And I remember it's really almost not accurate to say I felt the peace of God. It was like I was in the peace of God. It was just there was a calmness and um a tranquility that uh it you can't explain. But um, but then God showed me, and this was the thing that I believe God wanted me to really uh understand, was that peace came flowing out of God's righteousness. He wanted me to know that. In fact, I feel the Holy Spirit speaking to me about that right now, is that out of God's righteousness, his purity, his justness flows peace. There is a peace that can only be experienced, that's from God, that flows from his righteousness, his holiness, his purity. And here we have a sea of glass that even what you walk upon is the purity of God and is pure. We also see John saw the four living creatures, and they had the faith, they were angels. These creatures uh uh correlate to the uh creatures or the angels that uh Isaiah saw and Ezekiel saw in the Old Testament as well. They had eyes all over, six wings, and these four had the faces that represented, I believe, the creation of God, the face of a man, the face of a flying eagle, the face, the face of an ox, and the face of a lion. And so uh these all represented the uh uh represented the um uh the creation of God around the throne. Uh a tremendous um view that John has here. And uh, and we have to realize this this is a first century man that is seeing uh these things, a man who has never seen electricity, never seen um a car or an airplane, or never seen elect electricity, never seen a motor, never seen gasoline, nothing of that sort, not that kind of technology at all. And now all of a sudden, this scene is being thrown at him where he obviously has nothing uh in his experience to base this on. And so John does the very best he possibly can in describing it. Um, brothers and sisters, it is going to be a truly wonderful thing uh when we get to heaven and see the throne and see God. And even now, while you're here, Hebrew writer tells us to enter into the throne room of God with boldness. And now maybe we can enter the throne room of God uh with a little more clarity and understanding what John saw. God bless you.