Revelation 1-4 The Way to the Throne Room of God Darlington Christian fellowship 2/11/25 https://www.darlingtonchristianfellowship.com.au/sermons/sermon.php?id=544
Bible Readings [] = omitted from sermon
Rev1:1-9; 4:1-11
“The revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, 2 who testifies to everything he saw—that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. 3 Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near. 4 John, To the seven churches in the province of Asia: grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits[a] before his throne, 5 and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, 6 and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen. 7 “Look, he is coming with the clouds,” and “every eye will see him,
even those who pierced him”; and all peoples on earth “will mourn because of him.”
So shall it be! Amen. 8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.” 9 I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. ” (Rev 1:1-9)
“After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” 2 At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it….“You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honour and power for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.”” (4:1-2, 11)
Introduction
For most of Church history the Book of Revelation, as one of the most distinctive and hard to interpret of biblical books, has been better known simply as The Apocalypse, where “apocalyptic” has nothing to do with dark and scary things, for its all-consuming thesis is the climatic [Apocalypse/] Revelation of a Person, Jesus. Jesus is the fully apocalyptic Person who manifests the entire glory of God the Father in the power of the Holy Spirit. Unusually, The Apocalypse has two starting points, 1:1 and 4:1, reflecting both the situation of churches on earth and the sovereignty of God in heaven. Jesus once so humbly present on earth is now the ascended glory of the Lord in heaven (Phil 2:5-10). The “Revelation of Jesus Christ” is God’s own self-revelation, and as such it is and must be final, infallible and inerrant. (Terms often applied to the Bible, but much better applied to the Word of God as a Person) While the book of Revelation has striking passages about spiritual warfare (e.g. ch. 13 cf. Eph 6) and references to false prophets, [Nicolaitans, Balaamites, followers of Jezebel and so on] in chapters 2-3, whom we might see as opponents of the Church today, such as liberals/secularists etc. these are at most distractions from the revelation of the centrality of the one through and for whom all things were made and in whom all things hold together (Col 1:15; Heb 1:3). The sweeping cosmic vision of Revelation is unprecedented, not least because it was a vision given to someone who had seen, heard and touched the Word of life himself (1 John 1:1-4), but is now an extremely old man weak in body, tired and weary and physically overwhelmed, not so much by his imprisonment on Patmos, but by the revelation itself (1:9 cf. Dan 10:1-3). The rich OT background of the book (404 verses in Rev with references to over 500 OT texts) undergirds its complex symbolism and spiritual brilliance. It is a book designed to do the very opposite of confusing the saints of God for its purpose is to stir us up to worship and pray, not to lead us into debates about literal, historical or futuristic interpretations. Such rationalistic explanations fail to be grasped by the visionary nature of the text. (“I saw” at strategic points 1:12-13; 4:1; 13:1; 20:12; 21:1) The text must in a real sense be “seen” by its readers in order that they might attain the promised blessing: ““Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.” (Rev 1:3; cf. 22:7) (cf. Rev 3:20) [C.S. Lewis’ spoke helpfully on stimulated imagination https://www.cslewis.com/why-you-need-c-s-lewisshistorical-imagination/] Idolatry is the greatest obstacle to “seeing” inside, by revelation, this book. In like manner John concludes his first letter: “Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.” (1 John 5:21) Revelation presents an all-consuming image of Jesus, as the Pioneer and Perfector, Alpha and Omega, origin and end of history. The beginning and of all things are measured and visible in their purpose through their End who is the Person of the Son of God made human. If God was concealed in the fleshly humanity of Jesus, in Revelation he is exposed in glory (1:12-3:22). Only those who persevere to the Final End will see the fullness of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (Matt 24:12).
Review
The urgent message of Revelation is that the worship of heaven and earth [hence so many transcendental hymns https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/themelios/article/songs-of-the-seer-the-purpose-of-revelations-hymns/] relativises all passing worldy idol worship however powerful idols may be in their presentation. Paradoxically, Revelation teaches that from Jesus on through to his martyrs e.g. Antipas (2:13), “righteous dying” is how God rules the world. Because martyrdom includes all forms of voluntary suffering for Christ, an essential ingredient of the progression in faith displayed in this book is the transition in seer John’s own humanity. The Christophany = revelation of Jesus in Chapter 1 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christophany) must first transform John before it can convert his readers.
[“I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. “I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.” (Rev 1:9).] Only because John is a sharer in suffering and patient endurance does he have inner authority to testify to Jesus. Without such “existential trauma’ all his elevated “visions” would be those of a false apostle and prophet. It is Jesus’ own testimony (e.g. 1:2, 9) in John that imparts his spiritual authority to us today.
The Church, [indeed all things (Col 1:16),] exists for the one singular purpose of testifying to Jesus, so that we are one with John as he was on Patmos; (cf. JY with DY on Patmos https://cross-connect.net.au/books/the-mystery-is-christ-by-john-yates/) and in the power of the Spirit-Word (cf. 1 Cor 5:3-4) in Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea, all for the purpose of proclaiming “the word of God and the testimony of Jesus”. My old mentor Geoffrey Bingham put this issue well: “To bear testimony to Jesus means to have his testimony within us, and to have it as the primary consideration within our lives. The propagation of this is the very purpose of our lives. Yet we cannot bear testimony to the testimony apart from living the testimony. This testimony certainly includes what he did in his earthly life, but it must include what he is now doing.”
In Ch 2-3 we encounter 7 churches, the number of wholeness/fullness (cf. 55 other uses in Revelation). 7 is to be read in a representative way, [ though not chronologically as though each church is representative of a particular age, such as the Middle Ages, (e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historicist_interpretations_of_the_Book_of_Revelation)] as to how in every city the Church is called to bear faithful witness to Christ. Which is what it means to be God’s “end-time/last days” community in the Messiah (cf. Acts 2:17; Heb 1:2 etc.) up until his Second Coming, a people formed in, by and for the Word of God who is Jesus [including his sacramental signs]. Tragically, Rev 2-3 shows that by the close of the first century most of the churches had lost much of their prophetic edge. Even in Ephesus, planted and nurtured by those in the apostolic-prophetic succession, Paul (Acts 19) and Timothy (1 Tim 1:3), plus ancient tradition pictures John being carried into the church exhorting the people to “love one another” (Jerome’s Commentary of Gal 6:10 etc.), the very sin that seems to have plagued them (Rev 2:4)! The ascended and glorified Jesus still “walks among the seven golden lampstands.” (2:1), so he is here in Darlington this morning!
A Hermeneutic Key
I believe a key to interpreting Revelation 1-4 can be found here: “When I saw him (the vision of the glorified Jesus), I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. 18 I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.” (1:17-18). John was still “the disciple Jesus loved” (John 13:23; 19:26; 20:2; 21:7, 20) and who he had seen the Lord on the Mt of Transfiguration, in his raising Lazarus from the dead and in his resurrection power, yet the manifestation recorded In Rev 1 alone had the power to utterly humble him cf. Rev 19:10. Revelation is about worship, so this is the vantage point from which heaven born worship alone can be understood, the climax of worship is the “testimony of Jesus” not merely testifying about Jesus but Jesus own totally overwhelming testimony of what the Father has and is still doing in his Life.
In the Throne Room of God
Ch 4 is the climax of the first portion of Revelation because it represents a vista of the throne room of God in heaven, the place from which all decisions, including your birth, regeneration and growth in Christ has been forever set. John’s record: “After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” (Rev 4:1), is an application “in the Spirit” (4:2) of the ascension of Jesus he saw decades before: “After he (Jesus) said this (1:7-8), he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight” (Acts 1:9); [and of which he speaks later in Revelation (12:5).] Given the communion between John and Jesus, and the trauma he has recorded in ch. 1:17-18, he needed this earlier great assurance that he will not be annihilated by the infinite holiness of the glory of God resident in the now glorified Son of God awash with the majesty of the Father. Whilst subjectively/experience this has been provided by his earlier experience of Jesus touching him and declaring victory over any fear of death, the objective assurance is what he sees surrounding the throne of God. “A rainbow that shone like an emerald encircled the throne.” (4:3). Noah’s rainbow assured the earth of its ongoing survival, but this rainbow fulfils in Christ [all other rainbow appearances and] proclaims prophetic universal tranquillity through the blood of the cross (Col 1:20) It is a revelatory sign of a whole new creation. It is in this assurance that John will writes the rest of his book.
Darlington Christian Fellowship
Every generation of Christians must face up to the presence of false religion, in the world, and most devastatingly, in the Church! The words of the Son of God, “I know”, repeated to 4 of the 7 churches e.g. “your works’ is a part of the Spirit’s testimony for you present here today (cf. 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22). Such “words of knowledge” are deeper than “know about”, because they refer to Christ’s profound inner knowing/intimacy of each congregation (cf. John 17:3; Gal 4:9; 1 Cor 13:12). Today your Lord wants to remind you of the delight he takes in your weakness as you submit to him in love. You are sharing this grace with the Church in Philadelphia, “I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. 9 I will make those who are of the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews though they are not, but are liars—I will make them come and fall down at your feet and acknowledge that I have loved you. 10 Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth.” (Rev 3:8-9). Whilst those who oppose the Church will receive final humiliation faithful believers will be honoured in the same way that John honoured Jesus, and Jesus honoured John, in Rev 1:17-18, and you will be preserved through the end-times trials that will soon visit the globe. Such scantiness of strength was shared with us by John in his old age on Patmos, but supremely by Jesus in Gethsemane [where he testified, ““I am deeply grieved, even to death; remain here, and stay awake with me”” (Matt 26:38)] and on his walk to the cross. Remember Paul’s proclamation, “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless/without strength, Christ died for the ungodly.” (Rom 5:6) applies the whole counsel of God (cf. Acts 20:27)] In order to persevere with faith to the End all 7 churches must pay heed to Jesus’ words to the Ephesians, “Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.” (Rev 2:5). Whatever heights of attainment since then the pinnacle of your Christianity was the lowly condition of our conversion. Jesus promises to visit the churches in person, “I will come” (2:5) he tells the loveless Ephesians, and cautions the wealthy Laodiceans, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” (3:20). These promises to “come” and visit his people in Risen power have been repeatedly true across the ages prior to the Final Second Coming.
Conclusion
The Apocalypse culminates the entire biblical prophetic tradition. The book is written to small groups of Christians under pressure to compromise scattered abroad but called to be faithful to their Lord by refusing to assimilate to the prevailing culture. The Church always exists in a situation of great controversy sandwiched between the verdict of the powers of darkness and the decree of the tribunal of God (Acts 26:18; cf. Rev 20:11-15). Central to this cosmic dispute is the testimony of Jesus to the righteousness/justice of God as a Holy Father (John 17:11). At the heart of the testimony of Jesus (Rev 1:2, 1:9, 6:9, 12:11, 12:17, and 19:10.) is the centrality in the throne room of God of a vision “between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.” (Rev 5:6). The display of the way of the Lamb in this world is the means by which the followers of Jesus are to conquer this wicked world (1 John 5:4-5). The Spirit of God speaks today in the power of the death-and-resurrection of Jesus, a truth released always and everywhere by “the prayers of the saints”, living and dead, earthly and heavenly (Rev 5:8; 8:3-4). All “history moves at the impulse of prayer” (D. W. Torrance). From the perspective of the coming kingdom of God, the Spirit-borne initiative of the prayers of the saints moves the world in God towards the End. Prophecy as testimony to Jesus (Rev 1:9; 19:10) is a dynamic spiritual operation by which the world is always confronted with the nature and will of God. “Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself.” (1 John 5:10). By eternal decision (Rev 13:8): “God is actually amassing the evidence concerning Himself and His character against the false ideas which the human race…have regarding him and against him.” (Allison Trites). This witness is judicial and personal and includes the totality of our lives. To this Revelation chapters 1-4 give infallible witness.