AN OPEN DOOR,
A THRONE AND WHAT TAKES PLACE
In the seven letters to the seven churches we saw Jesus who knows our hearts, who is the first and the last, with all eternal authority, who overcame and is with the Father in heaven. And now we come to a vision of Heaven – from John’s history ‘then’, and our history in our time ‘now’. A glimpse through this open door – a door open to the elect and all those called through God’s effectual calling and grace – called and saved eternally through the atoning death and resurrection of Jesus.
A glimpse of true reality at the end of our lifetime -the end of our history in Jesus’ eternity.
This is the real hope mentioned earlier – a hope already ours. Being in Jesus we are in the real ‘now’, victorious in Jesus and through the Holy Spirit seeing ourselves safe in the ‘not yet’. In Revelation 4 we see clearly what is our eternal future. Remember this ‘future’ could be today, tomorrow or in ‘n’ years’ time. The Cross is the victory. We are victorious in Jesus (1Corinthians 15:54, 57; Galatians 2:20; 1 John 5:5).
How important it is to read Holy Scripture.
Revelation 4
The Throne in Heaven
1 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.
3 And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and ruby. A rainbow that shone like an emerald encircled the throne.
4 Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads.
5 From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumbling and peals of thunder. In front of the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits of God.
6 Also in front of the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal. In the centre, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and back.
7 the first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle.
8 Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around even under its wings. Day and night they never stop saying:
“’Holy, holy, holy
is the Lord God Almighty,’
who was, and is, and is to come.”
9 Whenever the living creatures give, honour and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever,
10 the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say:
11 “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.”