Revelation Chapter 4

In Revelation Chapter 4, John is taken up to stand before the throne of God.  What he saw was very interesting, and I will not be much help in explaining what he saw.  So I will list what John saw and we can just keep that picture in mind.  John sees an open door in heaven.  That door was opened when Jesus died on the cross. He broke the vail that serperated God from man.  John wrote in his gospel in Chapter 10, verse 7 -9, that Jesus said,

                    "Truly Truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.  All who came before
                     Me are theives and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.  I am the door; 
                     if anyone enters through Me, he shall be , and go in and out, and find pasture."

 John would not have been able to enter through that door, if Jesus had not opened it.  John hears a sound like a trumpet speaking to him, saying,

                     " Come up hear, and I will show you what must take place after these things."

The Bible , in different places, talks about trumpet sounds.  In Revelations, we will see the trumpet sounding many different events.  Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthians, in Chapter 15, verses 50 -53, wrote,\

                      " Now I say this, brethern, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom
                      of God: nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.  Behold, I tell you
                      a mistery; we shal not all sleep, but we shall be changed, in a moment, in the
                      twinkling of an eye, at the LAST TRUMPET; for the trumpet will sound, and
                      the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.  For this
                      perishable must put on imperishable, and the mortal must put on immortality."

Paul talks about the same event in his first letter to the Thesssalonians, Chapter 4, verses 15 -18,

                     " For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, and
                     remain until the coming of the Lord, shall not procede those who have fallen
                     asleep(died).  For the Lord Himself will decend from heaven with a shout,
                     with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God: and the dead in
                     Christ shall rise first.  Then those who are alive and remain shall be caught up
                     together with themin the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall
                     always be with the Lord.  Therefore comfort one another with these words."

These two passages will take on more life in the things we will discover reading through Revelations.

Immediately after John was told that he would be shown what must shortly take place, he was in the Spirit and saw a throne standing in heaven, and One sitting on the throne.  It was interesting to me that Spirit was capitalized.  This could mean that, before the throne, John was inside the Spirit of God.  If he had just been in a spiritual state, spirit would not have been capitalized.  Something for thought.

This is what John saw:

1) He who was sitting

2) Was like a jasper stone ( an opaque reddish quartz )
               Isaiah wrote in his 1st Chapter, verse 18,   Says the Lord, "Though your sins are as scarlet (red ), They will be as white as snow, Though they are red like crimson, They will be like wool."  If you ever look through a glass darkly (red glass) at something red, it looks white.  Maybe this is where the wonderful power of the blood of the lamb ( Jesus ) comes in.  Jesus looks at our red sin through His red blood and sees white.  Jesus washed our sin with His blood.  Our sins our clensed.

3) Sardius in appearance   ( a red stone )

4) Rainbow around the throne, like an emerald in appearance ( transparent green beryl )

5) 24 thrones around the throne

6) 24 elders sitting, clothed in white garments, and golden crowns on their heads

7) From the throne, flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder

8) 7 lamps of fire burning, which are the 7 Spirits of God

9) Before the throne, a sea of glass like crystal

10) In the middle of the throne and around the throne, 4 living creatures full of eyes in front and behind;

1st creature)  Was like a lion. In the old testament, God was the Lion of Judah, Israel's preserver.
2nd creature) was like a calf      Jesus was the Son ( Lamb of God ).
3rd creature) had the face of man     Jesus is the risen Lord.
4th creature) was like a flying eagle    Jesus is coming to meet believers in the air.

11) These 4 living creatures each have 6 wings and are full of eyes around and within and day and night do not cease to say:

                       " Holy, Holy Holy, is the Lord God , The Almighty,
                          who was and who is and who is to come."

12) As the living creatures give glory honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, to Him who lives forever and ever

13) The 24 elders will fall down before Him who sits on the throne and will worship Him who lives forever and ever, and will cast their crowns before the throne, saying:.

                     "Worthy art thou, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power;
                     for thou didst create all things, and because of thy will they existed, and were created."

Jesus' peace be with you.