Enthronement – Part 1

Revelation 4:1-11

¹After 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.”

²At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne.

³And 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.

⁴Around 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.

⁵From 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,

⁶and 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:

⁷the 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.

⁸And 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!”

⁹And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever,

¹⁰the 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,

¹¹“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.”

If you want to have a genuine worship experience, take 3 minutes and read through Revelation 4 and 5. Then go back and take 30 minutes and read through it again. In these two chapters we find a description of the throne room of God that will bring any believer to their knees in adoration and worship. If you take the time to allow yourself to be transported into that worship space, God will fill your heart with praise. These words are transformative.

This week we will examine these two chapters in detail, for in the details there is joy. After receiving the seven letters to the seven churches and his commission from Jesus to do the work of transcribing these visions of the End Times, John is allowed to see into the very throne room of God. Jesus Christ Himself invites John to walk through (or at least look through) the door of divine revelation. We know that it is Jesus because John recognizes His voice as being the same One who spoke to Him at the beginning of the Revelation.

Now for John comes the daunting task of describing what he sees. When Paul was given a similar experience in the Spirit, he declared that “he heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell.” (2 Corinthians 12:4) Now, a few years later, John is given leave to share what he experiences and it is amazing. First he describes the Father seated on a throne. But we aren’t talking about a human figure here. God is described as a precious jewel – or rather the refracted light that comes from a jewel when sunlight shines through it. When a woman receives a diamond, eventually she will end up gazing at it as it sparkles in the sunlight. You can’t help it for those refracted beams are a multicolored thing of beauty. Multiply that times a few trillion and you might come close to what John sees on that throne. All that beauty is surrounded by a rainbow.  

“Literally the word means ‘a circle of light, a fiery-like ring.’ It was used to refer to a halo, and for the iris of the human eye. The ancient Greeks imagined that the rainbow encircled the entire earth, though only half of the circle could be seen. The visible part of the rainbow was called the “bow”. Because the rainbow here in Rev 4:3 encircles the throne it is understood to be a complete circle, a halo or a rainbow-like halo.

Brighton, L. A. (1999). Revelation (p. 111). St. Louis, MO: Concordia Pub. House.

Around this fantastic throne of God are placed 24 additional thrones. These are the thrones representing the 12 Tribes of the Children of Israel in the Old Testament and the 12 Apostles of the New Testament. Represented in these 24 elders is the entire church throughout all time.

I find these words inspiring and comforting. The old cliché says “God is in His heaven and all is right with the world.” (From Pippa Passes by Robert Browning, 1841 – although the exact meaning of the phrase is up for critical debate.) His heaven is glorious and untroubled by all that troubles us. Everything is well in God’s control and I need only worship my Savior. I am reminded of a song by David Crowder called Come as You Are. In this lyric line we find the same ideas. You can click the link below to give it a listen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2zhf2mqEMI

Come As You Are – By:  Matt Crowder

Come out of sadness from wherever you've been

Come brokenhearted, let rescue begin

Come find your mercy, O sinner, come kneel

Earth has no sorrow that Heaven can't heal

Lay down your burdens, Lay down your shame

All who are broken, Lift up your face

O wanderer, come home, You're not too far

So lay down your hurt, Lay down your heart

Come as you are

There's hope for the hopeless, And all those who've strayed

Come sit at the table, Come taste the grace

There's rest for the weary, Rest that endures

Earth has no sorrow that Heaven can't cure

Lay down your burdens, Lay down your shame

All who are broken, Lift up your face

O wanderer, come home, You're not too far

So lay down your hurt, Lay down your heart

Come as you are

Come as you are, Come as you are

Fall in His arms, Come as you are

There's joy for the morning, O sinner, be still

Earth has no sorrow that Heaven can't heal

Earth has no sorrow that Heaven can't heal

Lay down your burdens, Lay down your shame

All who are broken, Lift up your face

O wanderer, come home, You're not too far

So lay down your hurt, Lay down your heart

Come as you are

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