Let me pray first and we'll jump right in. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the privilege that we have to come in search of word. We pray that as we jump into the study of Revelation that you would give us insight, the things that are easier to understand, help us Lord God to be eager to learn and apply.

The things that are a bit more difficult, help us to be patient and do the homework that we need to do. And even in our confusion, Father God, I pray that you would sanctify our hearts. Help us to know who you are. Help us know the Bible better as we search your word.

And so we pray for your grace. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, so before we get started, again, we're starting off, up to this point it's been pretty straightforward, right? You know, the only maybe discussion that we may have had is, are the Book of Revelation, the seven different churches of the Book of Revelation in the first two chapters, three chapters, you know, like how does it apply?

Is it chronological? Is it talking about certain periods? And obviously there's some questions there, but it's pretty straightforward. Those are literal churches that existed historically or some backgrounds, or he's talking to a something that we know tangibly existed. What we're looking at starting from chapter four is going to open up a can of worms.

And so when we think about Book of Revelation, we're usually thinking about chapter four and on. All the different visions that are come up, like where does it apply? What is it for? And so before we get into it, just as an encouragement, I found that, you know, studying through the Bible, obviously there are certain books that are much harder to understand than other books.

Leviticus is one of those books, Numbers, Ezekiel, Lamentations, some parts of Daniel and Book of Revelation. But I found that some of the most rewarding studies are always in these books and not simply because you find some new things that you didn't know before, but it'll force you to try to connect the dots.

It'll force you to look at other passages that are difficult places. And so it will help you to understand how these things are connected to each other. So oftentimes you can study the Book of Ephesians and never study any other book but Ephesians. So of course you can gain a lot from that, but these prophetic books, it really wasn't ever meant to be studied in isolation.

You have to study parts of Ezekiel. You have to study parts of Daniel, parts of Isaiah. And so it helps us to connect the dots so that we can get a broader understanding of what God is doing. So we know that God's salvation history, that it's preparation for Christ and then the rest of human history from New Testament, the Gospels and on, it kind of points us back to Christ.

But the specifics of how it's going to be revealed, the specifics of how all of these things are going to unravel, in particular in history, this is where these prophetic books, apocalyptic books come in. And it kind of makes things that were kind of, again, it's not crystal clear, but it kind of gives you a much clearer picture of the application of how this is going to happen.

So it forces us to see the Bible in a completely different light that we may not normally look at. So the benefit of studying something like a book like this, where even if you don't come out saying like, "Oh, I'm still confused," the benefit of it is you'll understand the Bible a lot better than if you haven't done the homework.

Okay? All right, so we're looking at chapter four. And chapter four actually is a new section that's going to open up and prepare us for what's coming in chapter six. Chapter six and on, there are a series of seven different judgments that are coming. There's the trumpet, the seal judgment, and there's the bowl judgment, and then what did I miss?

Okay, I'll get to that in a minute. But there's a series of seven different, three sets of seven judgments that are coming. And so what we're going to be looking at in chapter four and five is preparation for those judgments that's going to come. And that's where all the stuff of the white horse and black horse and authority of the heavens being wiped away, that's that section.

That section between chapter six and 16 is where the heavy prophecies are going to come and say, "Oh, I don't understand this." But we're going to hopefully get into that and dig into that a little bit further. But chapter four is the beginning of that. All right, so chapter four and five, they record seven different scenes just in these two chapters.

And when I say seven different scenes, just kind of imagine if you were trying to do a skit of these two chapters, you have to have seven different things that you have to present. And so chapter four will present two of them. And in chapter five, we will see five separate scenes, separate things that he sees.

So we're going to break it up into these seven scenes. Today we're going to be dealing with two of them. The seven of them, we don't have to go through all of them, but today we're going to be going through the open door to heaven that John is given a glimpse of.

And these are all things that it says that it must happen before the other judgments come. And then we're going to see the vision of the throne of God and the description of that. And then the seal scrolls, and then the worthy lamb. So we'll get to that when we get to chapter five.

But today we're going to be dealing with one and two. The previous section that we looked at, chapter one, two, and three, it mainly dealt with what was happening on earth. Today's section and then the section on, it's the door to heaven is opened up and John is given a glimpse to reveal what's happening in heaven.

So completely flipped where we've been studying what God was seeing on earth, and now we're going to be studying what John is seeing up in heaven. And so chapter four and on is what God is revealing to John. And so it's not something specifically happening on earth. These are things that are going to play out, and then ultimately it's going to play out in the future.

So beginning section one, where the vision of the open door, and it opens by saying that the same voice of the trumpet that led or spoke to John in chapter one is the same voice that's going to be leading him. So obviously it's talking about Christ, and some people ask the question is if he's talking about first voice, is the second voice different?

And I believe it's for the purpose of emphasis that it is the same person, meaning clearly chapter one is Jesus. So chapter four and on is also Jesus kind of playing the tour guide to John, revealing to him that this is what's happening and he's speaking to him. The same vision, if you can turn your Bibles to Ezekiel chapter one, I want to encourage you as you guys are studying through some of these prophecies, we're going to be jumping back and forth to Ezekiel and sometimes the book of Daniel, but I want you to see for yourself what is happening in the book of Ezekiel.

Because the same vision, it's not identical, but it seems like what Ezekiel was seeing up in the throne of God is very similar. Not same, there's certain parts of the visions that are a bit different. But there's no way that if you read Ezekiel chapter one and you read Revelation chapter four that you're not going to be able to see the similarities between these two things.

And it seems like that it's pointing to the same thing. So I'm going to read a portion of this just for point of reference, and then as we continue to study we're going to be jumping back and forth to the book of Ezekiel just to kind of show the parallel between these two visions.

Starting from verse four, it says, "As I looked, behold, a stormy wind came out of the north and great cloud with brightness around it and fire flashing forth continually and in the midst of the fire as it was gleaming metal. And from the midst of it came likeness of four living creatures." Probably if you read Revelation before you came, you already know that four living creatures are mentioned in the book of Revelation chapter four.

And this was the appearance they had of human likeness, but each had four faces and each of them had four wings. Now the description of the faces are the same, but description of each of the creatures, if you haven't noticed, I'll point out later, it is different. And I actually have a picture of this so it can kind of give you a visual.

Their legs were straight and the soles of their feet were like the sole of the calf's foot and they sparkled like burnished bronze under their wings of their four sides. They had human hands and their four had the faces of their wings thus and it goes on and on and on.

So there's no way that you can read chapter four and read Ezekiel chapter one and not see the parallel between these two. In fact, Daniel has bits and pieces of this as well, but it's not as extensive as it is in Ezekiel chapter one. So clearly what John is seeing, maybe he has a different angle or maybe he's seeing a different portion of the throne of God, but it seems like John and Ezekiel is seeing the same throne because we can clearly see the similarities.

And the voice that is speaking to John here is also mentioned that it was like a voice of trumpet and we mentioned that the first time that this came out, that the trumpet is used for the purpose of gaining attention typically in times of war or to gather the people or have a sense of urgency to or to announce something very important.

So when John hears the voice like a trumpet, it is not a soft whisper. It is not something that Jesus is speaking in a gentle voice. He's saying, "Thus saith the Lord," he's coming with authority and with a sense of urgency. So the scene two of the throne of God, I chose the picture that in my mind depicted as accurately as I saw.

Obviously it's not as detailed and you probably can't see it, but I could have chosen other pictures that were more, I don't know, maybe clearer to see, but I think this one captures the closest to all the details. See how all the elders, 24 elders are bowing down in worship.

You see the creatures there. Can you see them here? Can you see them? Kind of. Anyway, I'll show you more details later. So we don't know exactly if this is exactly what John saw, but according to the description, there's actually quite a few artists who try to depict this and I'm imagining when I'm reading it, this is the scene that I see, right?

So just soak this in so you get an impression in your head. So as we're talking about it, you have a visual in your head. So if you're a visual learner, hopefully this will help. So scene two, where we begin starting from verse two through 11. So scene one is the calling, "Hey, John come and look at the open door and we're going to give you a glimpse into heaven to show you what must take place before the seal judgments come, the other judgments come." And so in scene two, John is looking in and scene one, he sees the door.

Scene two, he's looking in, he's seeing the throne of God. So John, it says, is taken in the spirit because he is now taken into the heavenly realm rather than God coming down to the earthly realm. Now, the reason why I jotted this down is because we discussed that John, when he heard from Christ about what was happening, he was in the spirit.

Again, this is just a thought that I had that possibly the reason why John was taken up in the spirit was because Jesus was bringing him to a spiritual realm to show something that is not physical. Where Jesus came and took on human form to communicate with us at our level, but when these prophetic things are going on, John is taken up to the heavenly level, so that's why he's in the spirit, right?

So he gets a glimpse into heaven, but typically when we think of the image of heaven, when we think of the image of heaven, how many of you think of just open grass? Some of you guys are nodding, right? Clouds maybe, right? Mansions maybe? You might have heard maybe mansions?

Every scene that we see where they get a glimpse of heaven, they see the throne, right? The vision that we're seeing here is not unique to John. Isaiah sees a vision when he sees heaven, he sees a vision of God on his throne. Ezekiel sees it. Daniel sees it.

So it's mentioned in the book of Matthew. It's mentioned in the book of Kings. So when heavens are opened up and the kingdom of heaven is shown or demonstrated, in almost every scene, the scene that they see is God on his throne and the angels in worship. Now I don't know if we get to heaven, if that's the first thing we're going to see.

My guess is probably, right? My guess is probably. Now I say, well, you got billions of people, you know, we're going to be so far, we're not going to see it. You know, you may argue all of that, but I think there's a reason why every time the curtain to God's kingdom is open, that the first thing and the most primary thing that they see is God himself.

And you probably heard that term, if, you know, if Christ was not, if Jesus was not in heaven, heaven wouldn't be heaven, right? Heaven is heaven is because that's his dwelling place. That's his kingdom. He's bringing us to his house. So it would only make sense that if you're going over to somebody's house, the first thing that you're going to see in that house is that somebody that you came to see, right?

And that's why I really feel like, you know, Jonathan Edwards describes perfectly, you know, what is the greatest evidence of true salvation is that there is an affection for Christ that wasn't there before, right? Because it's the affection for Christ, which is what causes you to repent, to draw near to him, desire to be sanctified, come to church, serve one another, and long for his second coming.

So Jonathan Edwards says we can fake passion for Christ. We can fake prayer. We can break missions. We can fake fellowship and sacrifice. But in the end, all of that stuff can be fake. But at the core of genuine salvation, there's always affection for Christ, right? So it's interesting that, again, that when John is shown heaven, first thing that he sees is the same picture that all the other prophets sees is God's throne and all the creatures that surround him is worshiping him day in and day out.

And most likely when we get to heaven, that's going to be our, what we're going to be doing, right? So if you don't find life in worshiping God, heaven is not a place that you're going to want to go, right? And those of you guys, I think, you know, most, all of you, if not most of you are going to understand exactly what I'm talking about.

If you're a Christian, you're probably, your testimony is probably, you know, similar or same to mine. The greatest ecstasy that I've ever experienced was always in the context of real worship before God. That's when I feel the most alive. That's when I feel the greatest fellowship or meaning in life and purpose, where I feel the greatest joy, right?

And so heaven is a place that's described where all the creatures are worshiping him 24/7, right? So maybe there is green grass there. Maybe there are mentions there, but those are just props. The main dish is going to be what he's seeing here, the throne of God. In fact, this theme is probably one of the main themes of the book of Revelation.

The term throne of God is mentioned, I forgot how many, it's like 200 some times in the whole Bible, and it's mentioned 45 times in Revelations alone. So you can understand why in first and second Kings that the term throne of God would be mentioned, right? Or the term throne would be mentioned 32 times.

So in the book of Revelation alone, it's 45 times. So in the book of New Testament, for every four times that the term throne of God is mentioned, two-thirds of it is found in the book of Revelation. Two-thirds of the mention of the throne of God is in the book of Revelation.

So we can say in summary that one of the main themes of the book of Revelation is about God's exalted throne and worship. So if somebody asks you, "What is Revelation about?" It's about God's throne and his worship. That all of history, all of history, all of salvation, everything that Christ has done, ultimately it's going to culminate into this scene.

That what John is seeing, that at one point when he comes to redeem us, we see only in part, we're going to see him as he is, that it's going to ultimately lead to this scene. We're going to be participant of this scene. And that's the culmination of human history.

In fact, if you read through the book of Psalm, when God is mentioned repeatedly, over and over again, he's mentioned as the one who's sitting on his throne. Today we think of God, we think of him with his, what do you call it, with his tunic wrapped around his belt, on his knees, washing his disciples' feet.

And that's typically the scene that we see of Christ, or him crucified on the cross is often the scene that we see. But when the Bible describes Christ over and over again, or God the Father, he's the one who is exalted, he's the king who is being worshipped. And that's the same picture that we see also in the book of Revelation.

That the Christ that we worship, that everything that he has done has led to this. So like it says in Philippians chapter 2, he had the same equality with God, and then he humbled himself, and because he humbled himself, what did God do? He exalted him to the highest place, name above all names.

That every knee should bow and every tongue confess that Christ is Lord. So that's the scene that we see in heaven, and that's the most common description that we see in the scriptures of our God. The three stones that are mentioned in the throne, no one knows for sure.

Every commentary that you read, it has some variation of it, so no one knows exactly for sure, but there are some who will guess and say that Jasper, at least in that time, represented holiness or purity. Carnelian represented wrath. I don't even know what a carnelian is. An emerald.

What is it? You guys know what a carnelian is? A red stone. Okay. I've never even heard of this word. Yeah. Carnelian connected with the wrath of God. Again, that's just an educated guess. We don't know for sure. The rainbow that it describes, obviously the first thing that we think of is the promise that God makes to Noah and his descendants that he would not judge the world the same way that he judged them at that time.

So in the midst of his majesty and thunder and all of this stuff, he says one of the things that they see is the rainbow, and rainbow is a reminder of the covenant that he makes, that he would be faithful and merciful to his people. We see a vision of the 24 elders.

Again, there's a lot of debate as to who these 24 elders are, but most commentators are in agreement. Again, this is not a fact, but it's just an educated guess, that it symbolizes all of mankind. That some think that maybe it was 12 angels and then 12 tribes of Israel put together as 24.

Some people think that just the number 24 is symbolizing of totality of all mankind. But in the end, the conclusion, however you come up with 24, the common conclusion is that these 24 elders basically represents all of creation. And their primary task, when they are mentioned over and over again, they're prostrated in worshiping God.

So when John sees this vision of the throne of God, the scene that he sees are his creation bowing down in worship. And again, the word for worship, proskuneo, literally means to prostrate oneself. That this is not just casual, you know, raising of hands and singing some songs. This is where you're in the presence of this glory and you can't help but to fall down in honor.

You're so floored by his glory. And that's the word that is commonly used in the Bible to describe worship, to be prostrated. And so these 24 elders are 24/7, is around the throne constantly giving worship to God. And adoration and praise, like what comes out of their mouth in those passages that I put up there, is constantly praising.

So let me take a minute here before we move on to the other side, and I'm going to reiterate. When you think about the picture of heaven, like what makes you want to go to heaven? What makes you long to go to heaven? What makes you long for Christ to come?

Every once in a while somebody will say, kind of jokingly, but not really, like, "I don't want Jesus to come before I get married, because I want to experience marriage." You know, so, you know, like I'm longing for marriage first and then Jesus, right? And I know, you know, sometimes we're joking and sometimes we're not.

But what is it about heaven, not what you should be thinking about, not what I said or Bible study, but what do you long for? When I go to heaven, I really am looking forward to this. And obviously, if you have loved ones that you lost, I mean, that's probably one of the first things that you're going to be thinking about.

If you're suffering of any kind, probably thinking, like, "Hey, no more suffering, we go there, we don't have to be separated from loved ones, and, you know, there's no more suffering." This rat race that you and I have to live just to make ends meet, right? Relational problems that we have.

So all of these things the Bible promises. But the primary thing that the Scripture says the activity that you and I are going to be engaged in is eternal worship, because that's what God created us to do, to be His image bearers. So when sin came into the world, mankind dies.

So what was lost? Our ability to give Him glory, right? That's what it says in Romans chapter 3, 23, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." So when God restores us into eternal life, He's restoring us to be able to be His image bearers. Because you and I are still in this flesh, we do a poor job, right?

We reflect, but part of sanctification is to reflect better, right, who He is. So one day when we are finally delivered from this sinful flesh and we're in our glorified bodies, we're going to be in heaven reflecting His glory the way we were meant to. Now why is this so important?

As I mentioned before, right? If giving glory to God is not attractive while you live here, I don't think that gets turned on when you get to heaven. I don't think at some point in your rapture between here and heaven, all of a sudden you gain this affection for Christ that you didn't have here.

I think this affection that you had here is going to be intensified. I think the longing to be in His presence is going to be intensified. The ecstasy that you felt at any level of being in the presence of His glory is going to be intensified. So oftentimes we make a picture of heaven of, "Oh, it'd be great," kind of like, you know, if you visit a new place, right, that you've never seen, you've only seen pictures, "Oh, it'd be great if I visited Machu Picchu or if I visited or ate this," and you fantasize of what it would be like, right?

And so you create this in His head and then you create this longing in your heart because you've imagined it in your head. But the thing that you've imagined in your head, is it the reality? The heaven that you've imagined in your head, is it what the Scripture says what heaven would be like, right?

Because the primary and the central activity that the Scripture teaches us about heaven is to bring glory to God, is to worship God. What these creatures and what these elders are doing is what we're going to be doing. We're going to be joining them and it's going to be for eternity.

It's not going to be Sunday morning for two hours, right? It's going to be for eternity. So a Christian is somebody who has seen and has gotten a glimpse of the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ and you are longing for more of it, right? In essence, that's what salvation is.

Salvation is having our eyes open to see something beautiful and wanting more of it, right? So think about all the application of that. If that's our end goal, if the end goal of human history, if the end goal of Christ's suffering, if the end goal of persecution and all of that is to lead us to that scene, what John is seeing in heaven, what good is it to bring people to church, to fall in love with church, with people, with all these different activities, if ultimately we're not bringing them to this, right?

So the primary thing of the church is to bring them to love Christ because this is where we're taking them. We can't promise them to take them somewhere else and then sign a bait and switch later, right? So this scene that we're studying is not just a vision of some prophetic something in the future.

This is where we're headed. So hopefully as we're studying at least the next, you know, chapter four and chapter five, that you're getting a glimpse of your future home, right? You're getting a glimpse of your future home. So I hope that you can study with that kind of curiosity to really ask, what does this mean?

And I'll let you know when I actually get up there, okay? It says that he sees and hears a thunder and lightning around the throne. Each time the thunder and lightning is mentioned in chapter eight, 11, and 16, it is at the conclusion at the seven judgments that are coming, right?

It's almost kind of like a crescendo at the end where, you know, you kind of hear the percussion. And then when it comes to then it kind of builds up and then it ends with a boom. And so it starts with this boom. He sees the heaven and that's what he sees and hears.

Basically it represents God's majesty and that's what we see, right? And that's what Moses saw in Exodus chapter 19, 16. He saw the same vision. When God draws near to him, he heard thunder and lightning. And so in every instance where thunder and lightning is mentioned, it's at the end conclusion of these judgments that are coming upon the earth and it concludes with God's mighty presence, right?

So it's kind of like an exclamation mark and that's what John is seeing up in heaven. Sea of Glass, he mentions. Again, we don't know exactly what it is, but it is mentioned again in Ezekiel chapter 122 and basically it says, "Over the heads of the living creatures there was a likeness of an expanse shining like all inspiring crystals spread out above their heads." So in this passage, we don't have any specific descriptions, but in Ezekiel, it kind of describes this ocean or Sea of Glass as an expanse between God and the person who's seeing God.

So there is a divide, right? At least that's the way it's being described. So possibly that's what John is seeing, right? That God's glory, that's as closest that we'll ever get, but there's still a distinction between God and his creation. There's so many better pictures than this, but the reason why I chose this is because it captured all the details.

I mean, I hope you can see it. And if you see the details, it's pretty ugly. These are all eyes. Yeah, it's ugly. But you read Revelations, that's what it says, right? And if you look at it, here's the head of a lion, ox, human being, and an eagle.

And in this picture, they have six wings, right? They have six wings. I don't know if you can see all of them, but each of them independently have six wings, right? Now there's a description similar to this in Ezekiel, right? Probably when we're reading through it, you're paying attention, but the distinction is, if you look at the vision in Ezekiel, it says it has four creatures and they have four wings, and each of them, each one of them have, you know, the Revelation has, each one has, one has a head of a human being, one has a head of an ox, one has a head of an eagle, and what did I miss, a lion.

Here, every single creature has all of them. So in one creature, it has all four heads, okay? So again, you know, we can look at that and say, well, it's similar but not the same. So obviously, these are not the same creatures, but the creature that does seem like that is most similar to what we're seeing in Revelation chapter 4 is seen in Isaiah chapter 6.

Again, Isaiah chapter 6 doesn't have a lot of details, but it does describe the creature and has six wings and it seems closer to chapter 4, okay? Alright, so just have a visual. So this is not it, it's this, okay? And if you want to clear a better picture, look at, go Google it.

But again, the reason I chose this is because it has, I feel like it has all the details in place, you know, and some of them, they didn't draw the eyes right, some of them, you can't see the wings, some of them, like, you can see two but not the other two, but this one has all four of them and it has all the details, okay?

This is the vision from Ezekiel. So the four living creatures are very prominent in the visions. They will appear several times throughout the book of Revelation, right? And those are the passages that you'll see them in. And there are a lot of similarities between the vision in Ezekiel and some of the differences where, again, I just mentioned, Ezekiel's vision has four faces on each creature, they have four wings, and then if you keep reading, there's a lot of similarities and things that are not.

And those are just the most prominent things. The vision is probably closer to the one in Isaiah, okay? So if you remember the vision in Isaiah, where Isaiah sees the throne of God and it says, "Above him stood the seraphim, each had six wings, with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew, and one called to another and said, 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory.'" He doesn't say the exact same thing, but that phrase, "Holy, holy, holy," is being cried out by the same creatures mentioned in Isaiah 6 as the ones that we are looking at today.

Now one of the opinions of the food these four creatures are, again, there's a lot of guessing when it comes to these things. I just put Robert H. Mounds, he's the New International Commentary, and he basically says they are living creatures in an exalted order of angelic meaning, meaning that these creatures are the highest of the angels.

And that's why they are the closest to God's throne, and they serve as basically choir directors. But if you notice, that whenever they begin to worship and cry out, the other 24 elders bow down and they begin to worship. So they're the ones who initiate, they're basically the worship leaders, and they're the ones who are the closest to the throne.

And everybody else is on the outside, they initiate and everybody follows. And so again, the guess is that they are the highest order of the angels, at least that's what they believe. They have eyes all over, and that's what makes the pictures almost kind of seem mythic. And whenever you talk about the eyes being everywhere, it's talking about alertness and knowledge, all seeing, that we don't know if they're omniscient, but they definitely are able to see all things.

How many of you have heard or have been taught before that these four creatures represent the four gospels? Anybody? Nobody really? You can admit it, that's what I was taught. I took a book of revelation class in undergrad at Biola, and this was the view that was taught to me, that each of these creatures represent the four gospels.

In fact, some of the commentaries will actually argue this. You've never heard that before? Well, you heard it for the first time. I don't think that's what it is, because I don't think there's enough evidence to point to that, but can you see why they would say that these four things point to the four gospels?

Think. You got the man, you got the lion, you have the ox, and you have the eagle. Think about the four gospels, the emphasis and the unique characteristics of each of the gospels. What is the book of Matthew's theme? Kingdom of God, Jesus Christ as King. So which animal would represent that?

The lion, right? The lion, the lion of Judah, right? So the lion is often depicted as the king. What is Mark? Do you remember when Pastor Alex taught this? He called it a gospel, this gospel, goal gospel. Good, good student. He called it the goal gospel because it has the record of the most miracles of Jesus.

He's constantly, miracle after miracle, he's doing things. So it records the most action, right? Most events in the book of Matthew. So it's called the goal gospel. So which one would represent that? The ox, right? The work, right? It carries the heavy load, or the work. And so the book of Luke, what is emphasized in the book of Luke?

Humanity, right? It has the most detailed record of Christ's childhood when he's suffering on the cross. There's a greatest description of his suffering and the spear coming into his side and blood and water gushing out. So it has, again, it's written by a doctor and so it has the most descriptions about his humanity.

So Luke's gospel is known for emphasis on his humanity, right? And then the book of John emphasizes what? His deity, right? So again, we're not milking this. Each one of those gospels do represent these things. So you can see why some of the people were trying to translate this.

It represents the four gospel. So you could see the connection between it, but other than what I just said, there's no other evidence of that, right? But it sounds interesting. It sounds interesting. But at the least, we know that these are choir directors and they seem to be higher above other angels because they are at their nearest at the throne of God.

And we see that here. We see that also in Ezekiel. And then we also see that in the book of Isaiah. Probably the best way to understand these four creatures is that each one of them represents the top or the best in each field, where man being the caretaker of creation, lion being the king of the wild, ox being the strongest of the domesticated animals, eagles as the most majestic of the birds.

So of all the creation, it is the most exalted, right? And that's probably, and if you go beyond that, maybe you can connect it to the gospel, but I think that in and of itself, like what do these animals, each one of them, collectively, what do they mean? It's the most precious, exalted.

So it's kind of like saying that God is, you know, king of kings and lord of lords. And each of these creatures represent the top of the food chain, in essence. Each of them have six wings. And again, it may signify the swiftness to carry out the will of God.

Again, that's mentioned in Psalm 1810. He rode on a cherub and flew, he came swiftly on the wings of the wind. You understand why, like as I mentioned in the beginning, when you're studying apocalyptic writings, it forces you to try to find meaning in other places, like how did God use the term wing or, you know, different eyes and these animals.

And so it forces you to kind of look at certain thematic things that are mentioned in the Bible that you may not have really thought about before, but when you see it repeated over and over again, you kind of say, oh, there is a connection, right? The number three, typically you won't think much about it, right?

When you're just saying, oh, he was resurrected on the third day, were two or three witnesses, the inner circle of three, the Trinity. And over and over again, you see the number three, when you study it in isolation, you don't really think much about it. But when you think of it in the connection to the whole Bible, there's a clear theme, the number three, the number of confirmation, or you see the number seven is repeated over and over again for a number of completion, right?

So when we look at some of these things, when it talks about eyes, right, obviously it's talking about omniscience, to be able to see all things, wings, right? To be the ability to move back and forth, to be obedient as a messenger, right? And finally, the creature's primary duty was to worship day and night, crying, "Holy, holy, holy." And that's the same scene that we see.

The language in the end part is slightly different than what we see in the book of Isaiah, but basically in essence, it's the same, those same three terms, "Holy, holy, holy," right? So before I conclude, I'm going to take a minute to think about that, right? So when we think of heaven, and this is the end conclusion of where God has taken us.

When he comes to redeem his church and he says, "In my Father's house, there are many houses, and I go to prepare a place for you," that this is what he's preparing, right? He's preparing a place for us to join in this worship. And when John gets a glimpse of heaven, he opens the door for him to see what is happening in heaven and that this is happening in eternity.

What he hears is, first he hears the thundering, right? He sees this picture of these precious stones, and he begins to hear the worship, and it's kind of in unison, going back and forth, where these creatures are circling around the throne, saying, "Holy, holy, holy." And every time they do that, the 24 elders in unison would take off their crown, right?

Each one of the 12 also have their own throne. If you remember, when they respond in worship, they take off their crown, they get off their throne, they bow down, prostrate, and in worship. Part of the reason why they think that the 24 elders represent us is because the scripture tells us that we will also be co-heirs, we will be rulers with Christ, and we will have the crown of life and crown of glory given to us when we're there.

And that's part of the reason why they think that the 24 elders represent us. But in worship, they take off their crown, they come off their throne, and they bow down, and they hear, "Holy, holy, holy." And this is repeated twice in the book of Isaiah and in the book of Revelation.

So whenever you see anything that's repeated more than once, you know it's for the purpose of emphasis. So when you hear, no other attribute of God is mentioned three times. But this attribute of holiness, not only is it mentioned three times, it's mentioned twice in two separate places. And when these two men of God sees the vision of the throne, the primary scene that they see is a holy, holy, holy God where people are prostrated in awe and in worship.

So as human beings, as children of God who've been saved from an empty way of life, and now He desires us to be sanctified, the process of living, the process of us going from once being dead and now we are alive, and then we are coming to life, and then we will be alive finally when we're up in heaven, like ultimately.

The process of sanctification is the process of living, the process of drawing closer to His glory. That's what sanctification ultimately is, is getting a greater and greater glimpse of His glory, which in turn causes us to be better worshipers. That's what Bible study is about. That's what fellowship is about.

That's what church gathering is about. All of it is ultimately to get a better glimpse of His glory. So a Christian who is bored with His glory is going to be bored in heaven. He's going to be bored in Bible study. He's going to be bored in fellowship. Because all of it is meant to bring us to this.

So I do you no service if I attract you or keep you coming by anything other than a greater glimpse of this. Because the more you see of this, the more you desire of this, the more you will experience the life that Jesus promised, not something I can artificially give to you, to create, to make you feel good.

But in the end, true life is found in Christ and Christ alone. So what I want to encourage our church this afternoon is think about this picture that has been vividly drawn for us in Revelation chapter 4. That this is not some strange picture of mythology. This is not, even though we don't know exactly, I mean, He's writing down for us what He visually saw.

So it may be like this, it may be like this. We don't know if that's the exact picture that we're going to see. But the principles that we see from this vision is definitely applicable to us. We are taking step by step headed toward this scene where we're going to be joining them in eternity.

And I hope that you can just really have that imprinted in your mind so that anything that causes you to trivialize this is harmful to you, is actually doing great damage to your walk with God. And anything, even suffering and difficulty, that causes you to long more for this is the best thing that God desires of us.

So as we take time to fellowship, the discussion questions that I have is related to this vision. How has your imagination of heaven changed from when you first became a Christian to now, if any? Maybe some of you guys may remember when you weren't a Christian or when you were a young Christian what you imagined.

Now that you've had some time to study the Word of God, maybe even some of the things that you saw this week, how does that change your view of heaven? What aspect of corporate worship do you look forward to each week? What aspect of private worship do you enjoy the most?

If worship is the central activity of a Christian now and in future, what is it about that that you look forward to the most? What is something that you can practically do to help you prepare for corporate worship each week? And again, this is something that we try to encourage you week after week.

There's a huge difference between attending worship and giving worship. There's a huge difference between attending worship and giving worship. You can attend worship every single week and never truly worship God. Showing up and sitting down and listening to sermon and giving your money isn't worship, and you know that.

Jesus said he's not looking for people who are going to worship in this mountain or that mountain or this amount or this church or at this time or sing these songs. He said true worship is something that you choose to give. You sing because it's time to sing. You give because it's time to give.

But there's a huge difference between somebody who's come to give worship to God. So the question is, how do you prepare for corporate worship? If that's the central thing that you've been saved for, not so that you can keep breathing when you die, but so that what you lost at the fall can be restored, that you can be his image bearer and you can be true worshipers.

If that's the central thing that he created, that he saved us for, how central is it in your life? How do you prepare for it? So that's the third question. Four, how does or should the knowledge of God's holiness affect the way we approach worship? Again, that question is a much larger question than just Sunday worship, but the way we live.

How does his character of holy, holy holiness, other than the fact that Christ absorbed our penalty, the fact that the God that dwells in us, right? The Holy Spirit that is holy, holy, holy makes a dwelling in us. How does that affect the way you live? How does that affect the way you make judgments?

How do you discern what is right and wrong based upon his character? He says be holy because he is holy. So when we think about that this attribute is mentioned three times and it's mentioned in two separate places, and heaven is a place where it's primarily for the purpose of worship, how does that affect our worship?

How does that affect what we do? So let me invite you guys to be in your small groups. I'm going to pray for us and then you guys can take some time in your small groups. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this evening and we thank you, Father God, for giving us a glimpse of where we're headed and what is happening, Lord God, in your throne.

That even though we may not clearly understand some of the descriptions and what is taking place, we know, Father God, that you are more than deserving of all that we have to worship you with our mouths, our lives, our finances, our time. Help us, Lord, to examine our lives and that your word would judge the thoughts and intentions of our heart, that we would not simply coast along in religiousness, but we would be careful to worship you in spirit and in truth.

So I pray that you would bless our small group time, that we would be open, and that things we share would be iron sharpening iron for one another. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.