From Heaven’s View
Sermon preached Easter 1999 at The Church Triumphant,

Background:

It’s fashionable these days to discuss the Book of the Revelation in the context of what I consider to be fanciful interpretations.  We rarely hear the book discussed from a doctrinal viewpoint, or rarely hear sermons preached from it, unless we are discussing:

• The end times.
• The mark of the beast.
• The events in the world that make us believe that Christ will soon return.

And these days, what’s popular is:

• DiVincci Code
• Left Behind Series
• New movie in the next months called “Revelations” which appears to be kind of a combination of the two.

But I believe that the book is first and foremost, just what it says about itself, “the revelation of Jesus Christ…”  And today, I want to take my text from Revelation Chapters 4 and 5.  Allow me to set the stage for you to hear this passage.

Introduction:

Since Easter, I haven’t been able to shake this reminder of heaven’s perspective.  So often we think of Easter, and other events that we celebrate, from an earthly perspective of “what did it mean to me.”

• We discuss the love that must have held Christ to the Cross.
• We discuss the pain of the crucifixion, the torture.
• The incredible love of the Father that would have compelled Him to sacrifice His only Son.
• The wonder of the redemption and the salvation that resulted for us.

Those things are all well and good.  It’s helpful to be reminded of all those things.  But today, I want to take a look at what God had invested in this process.  I want us to examine these events from the bigger Epic perspective…

From Heaven’s View

But before I do, I need to illustrate why I believe the Book of the Revelation is so misunderstood.  Suppose I wrote this letter and sent it to you.  Someone preserves it and reads it hundreds of years from now…

I am writing to you, my brothers, to signify the state of affairs in this great country.

For years now, the donkeys and elephants have been engaged in battle behind closed doors.  However, in the recent past, the battle has spilled out into our public squares.

I say to you, that unless we experience a true change of heart as a nation, this malignant cancer will continue to grow until the entire nation will be overrun with donkeys and elephants at war with one another.  It will become a common battle on every street corner and in every public square, and will be a war which will determine the very future and survival of our nation.

Pray for revival and a return to an understanding that can lead us to a Godly future.

If someone read that and didn’t take into consideration that it was symbolic language, but tried to interpret it in a literal sense, it wouldn’t make any sense relative to what I intended.

During our lifetime, we have seen the collapse of the Iron Curtain, and we have managed to end the Cold War.  Try explaining that to someone who didn’t live through it.

We understand that these are symbolic language for big concepts.  While those are lame illustrations, I believe that Revelation was written in symbolic language that any good Jewish person would understand.

Let me remind you of some of those symbols.

The Tabernacle:

In Exodus, God encounters Moses, and tells Moses to build a tabernacle that would be the heart of worship for the nation of Israel.  This “tent of meeting” would be the worship center, where the nation of Israel would encounter and meet with their God.  Tabernacle simply means “tent.”  The nation of Israel was camped in tents by tribes.  And in the center of the encampment was God’s tent… the tabernacle.

The details given to Moses were incredibly detailed and precise.  Every piece of furniture, every garment, every piece of fabric, every post and pillar, every utensil, was to be made EXACTLY as God had told Moses.  The reason was, that this tent that Moses was building was to be a visual aide on earth, of what was occurring and had eternally been accomplished in heaven.

Hebrews 9:23-26 The copies of the things in heaven had to be cleansed by these sacrifices. But the heavenly things themselves had to be cleansed by better sacrifices.

Christ didn’t go into a holy place made by human hands. He didn’t go into a model of the real thing. Instead, he went into heaven to appear in God’s presence on our behalf.

Every year the chief priest went into the holy place to make a sacrifice with blood that isn’t his own. However, Christ didn’t go into heaven to sacrifice himself again and again.

Otherwise, he would have had to suffer many times since the world was created. But now, at the end of the ages, he has appeared once to remove sin by his sacrifice.

Without trying to describe the details of Hebrew worship, which would take more than the rest of the day, just remember that the Tabernacle was a “holy place made by human hands” which was a “model of the real thing.”  So when we see the real thing, where Jesus “went into heaven to appear in God’s presence on our behalf,” we will be seeing something which should remind us of the “model” we have seen before.

I believe that Revelation 4 and 5 are a record of the event when Jesus went into the REAL TABERNACLE in heaven.  We are being told the event in picture language, because even though we identify with it as a historical event that we celebrate at Easter time, it was not only an event that occurred at a point in history. 

Ephesians 1:4-5 Before the creation of the world, he chose us through Christ to be holy and perfect in his presence.  Because of his love he had already decided to adopt us through Jesus Christ.

Revelation 13:8  … That book belongs to the lamb who was slaughtered before the creation of the world.

So this event is not only a historical event, but an eternal event as well.  We are able to identify with it as a historical event, but don’t limit it to that.

Allow me to read the passage from Revelation Chapter 4 and 5

4:1 After these things I saw a door standing open in heaven. I heard the first voice like a trumpet speaking to me. It said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must happen after this.”

Instantly, I came under the Spirit’s power. I saw a throne in heaven, and someone was sitting on it.

The one sitting there looked like gray quartz and red quartz. There was a rainbow around the throne which looked like an emerald.

Around that throne were 24 other thrones, and on these thrones sat 24 leaders wearing white clothes. They had gold crowns on their heads.

Lightning, noise, and thunder came from the throne. Seven flaming torches were burning in front of the throne. These are the seven spirits of God.

In front of the throne, there was something like a sea of glass as clear as crystal. In the center near the throne and around the throne were four living creatures covered with eyes in front and in back.

The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like a young bull, the third had a face like a human, and the fourth was like a flying eagle.

Each of the four living creatures had six wings and were covered with eyes, inside and out. Without stopping day or night they were singing, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, who is, and who is coming.”

Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor, and thanks to the one who sits on the throne, to the one who lives forever and ever, the 24 leaders bow in front of the one who sits on the throne and worship the one who lives forever and ever. They place their crowns in front of the throne and say, “Our Lord and God, you deserve to receive glory, honor, and power because you created everything. Everything came into existence and was created because of your will.”

5:1-3 I saw a scroll in the right hand of the one who sits on the throne. It had writing both on the inside and on the outside. It was sealed with seven seals.

I saw a powerful angel calling out in a loud voice, “Who deserves to open the scroll and break the seals on it?”

No one in heaven, on earth, or under the earth could open the scroll or look inside it.

 

Seeing the Tabernacle:

Remember the Holy of Holies, which contained the Ark of the Covenant in the Tabernacle of Moses was seen as the “Throne of God in Israel.”  That place, also described as the Mercy Seat, was the place where the Glory of God was visible.  It was in the Holiest place, and the only light was the Light of God’s presence.  That was God’s throne…  God’s tent in the middle of all the tents of Israel… and in that tent, the throne of God.

On either side of the mercy seat were the Cherubim (the highest order of angels charged to guard God’s glory) and in front of the ark was the curtain, woven inside and out with angels.

Remember in Exodus 19 and 20, when the nation had come to Mount Sinai, God called Moses into his presence with the sound of a trumpet.  Do you see the similarity.  Here in Revelation 4, we see the throne of God in heaven… the REAL tabernacle, and the voice “like a trumpet” inviting John into God’s presence to observe THE event of all history.

It describes this one who sits on the throne as looking like brilliant jewels.  Sardius which is blazing Crystal, and Jasper with is brilliant red.  There is a rainbow in front of the throne, celebrating that this is the God who keeps His covenant.

Around the throne are twenty-four other thrones.  I believe that these twenty-four thrones and the twenty-four elders represent the church of all ages.  The nation of Israel was built on the foundation of the twelve patriarchs.  The church of the New Testament is built on the “foundation of the apostles and prophets…”

Ephesians 2:4-6 But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ–by grace you have been saved–and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus…

 

Ephesians 2:19-22 That is why you are no longer foreigners and outsiders but citizens together with God’s people and members of God’s family.  You are built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Christ Jesus himself is the cornerstone.  In him all the parts of the building fit together and grow into a holy temple in the Lord.  Through him you, also, are being built in the Spirit together with others into a place where God lives.

There are lightenings and thunderings… again I remind you of Exodus 19 and 20, at Mount Sinai where God called the nation into His presence.

Hebrews 12:18-24 You have not come to something that can be touched, a blazing fire, and darkness, and gloom, and a tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that not another word be spoken to them…

But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant...

And the description of the “four living creatures”… without turning there, is the same description that Ezekiel saw and described in the first chapter of Ezekiel.

 

I hope you see this view of heaven.  What an incredible sight.  God Himself, seated on this amazing throne… surrounded by all of the heavenly creatures… the angels, and all those who have worshipped Him from the foundation of the world!

But then, John sees a scroll… written on both sides!  Normally a scroll would be written on one side only.  It would be rolled up, and the outside would not be written on.  But this scroll is so full… it could not contain everything written on only one side.

The angel calls out for someone who DESERVES to open the scroll.  The issue is not one of strength, but one of WORTH.  It demanded a certain character and an authority… strength or power were not enough.  But, “No one in heaven, on earth, or under the earth could open the scroll or (even) look inside it.”

John’s response was:

Revelation 5:4 And I began to weep bitterly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it.

This is very significant to me!  John sees some incredible things throughout this Book.  Phenomenal, almost unimaginable, catastrophes and people dying by the thousands, a blood bath so bad that the horses wade in blood to their bridles… and John simply writes down the report… but this is the only time he is brought to tears!

I believe it is because of what was in the scroll.  I believe that the scroll contained God’s eternal purpose for His people.  It had been sealed over by our sin… our rebellion… our choice to go our own way… to reject God and His purpose.  And there was NOONE who was worthy to break even one seal.

See, until Jesus came, God’s purposes were hidden.  Listen to what Paul says:

Ephesians 2:2-12 …for surely you have already heard of the commission of God’s grace that was given me for you, and how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I wrote above in a few words, a reading of which will enable you to perceive my understanding of the mystery of Christ.

5 In former generations this mystery was not made known to humankind, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit: that is, the Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

7 Of this gospel I have become a servant according to the gift of God’s grace that was given me by the working of his power.

8  Although I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to me to bring to the Gentiles the news of the boundless riches of Christ, and to make everyone see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things; so that through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.

This was in accordance with the eternal purpose that he has carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have access to God in boldness and confidence through faith in him.

His eternal purpose was that the church… you and I… would show God’s wisdom in all of its variety… but it was sealed up for ages… it was sealed up until it was completed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

And in the middle of John’s weeping, a most amazing thing happens.

Revelation 5:5 Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep. See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.”

Why was the Lion of the tribe of Judah able to open this scroll?  Recall the prophecy about Judah’s offspring in Jacob’s prophecy in

Genesis 49:9-10 You are a lion’s cub, O Judah; you return from the prey, my son. Like a lion he crouches and lies down, like a lioness–who dares to rouse him?

The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs and the obedience of the nations is his.

 

Some translations say, “Until Shiloh comes…”  Shiloh means, “the one who is worthy,” or as NIV say, “the one to whom it belongs…”

This one had the character and the authority to open the seals… to reveal God’s purposes.

John continues…

Revelation 5:6 Then I saw between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders a Lamb standing as if it had been slaughtered, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.

7 He went and took the scroll from the right hand of the one who was seated on the throne.

8 When he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell before the Lamb, each holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

9 They sing a new song: “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slaughtered and by your blood you ransomed for God saints from every tribe and language and people and nation; you have made them to be a kingdom and priests serving our God, and they will reign on earth.”

11 Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels surrounding the throne and the living creatures and the elders; they numbered myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands,

12 singing with full voice, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slaughtered to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!”

13 Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, singing, “To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”

And the four living creatures said, “Amen!” And the elders fell down and worshiped.

 

The next two chapters describe the process of this Lion, who is the Lamb, breaking each of the seven seals.  Then Chapter 8:1 says:

Revelation 8:1 When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.

God’s purpose had been accomplished… it was done!  How amazing!  The Lion… the Lamb that had just been sacrificed… He was the focus of all eternity!

Remember Jesus conversation with the disciples in John Chapters 13 – 17.  The conversation they had just before Jesus went to the cross.

Over and over again Jesus tells the disciples that He is going to the Father.  And He assures them, that if He is going to the Father, that He will return again, and He promises that when He returns, they can be with Him where He is!

John 14:1-3 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me.  In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.

We have heard that passage read at funerals so often, that we have completely missed its point.  I do not believe that Jesus was talking about His ascension and the 2000 years since then until His return.  He was telling them of the immediate events, which would happen over the next several days.

He would go to the cross, He would give His life, He would be buried, but the grave couldn’t hold Him.  He would come back to life on the third day!

And I believe that Mary caught Him that first Easter Sunday morning, on His way to the Father… on His way to the REAL tabernacle in heaven…

Jesus says:

John 20:17 Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'”

And in the record of the other Gospels, the angels instruct them to go to Galilee and He would meet them there.

Jesus went from the garden… to His Father’s House… the REAL tabernacle in heaven…

where the Lion from the Tribe of Judah appeared… the Lamb having just been slain… the One who is WORTHY… and He presented to the Father the sacrifice of His own blood… and He took the scroll of God’s eternal purpose from the Father’s hand… and began to break open the seals of sin that had kept it hidden for all the ages…

And as He promised, John goes on to explain…

John 20:19 When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.”

20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.

21 Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”

When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.

 

It was complete!  He had been to the father… and now He could bring them to the place that He was!  He could now invite them to be seated with Him in heavenly places!

FROM HEAVEN’S VIEW… IT IS FINISHED!

 Matthew concludes his Gospel with these words… quoting Jesus:

Matthew 26:17 – 20 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.  And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.“