The Throne Room: Revelation 4-5

CityPoint: Meta Tauta, Session 1: The Throne Room, Revelation 4-5

Our next gathering will be Tuesday, August 1st at 5:30. We will begin with supper. We will then progress into the Seal Judgements: Revelation 6-7. 

As always, be a Berean and challenge against Scripture what is written here, the words I say or anyone, for that matter, who speaks about the Bible. The church as a whole would not be so far off track if Christians who sit in church would know, study, and challenge all things against Scripture. This is incumbent on all of us. Remember, the testimony of Jesus Christ is the spirit of prophecy (Revelation 19:10). This is why prophecy is pivotal to our walk with Jesus. He made a promise, and He will fulfill it! Praise HIM!!!

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As always, we will just scratch the surface….

I want to start with sharing the resources I use in the preparation for this study:

1. My New King James Version Bible

2. King James Version Bible Commentary

3. The Wiersbe Bible Commentary

4. 40 Days through Revelation by Ron Rhodes

5. Revealing Revelation by Amir Tsarfati

6. Various Chuck Missler videos and books

7. Blue Letter Bible Interlinear/Concordance. This is an app. I highly recommend it. You can read various versions, but you also have access to several commentaries as well as the Interlinear/Concordance which provides the original language and word meanings. This is pivotal in our study of God’s Word as our English language is garbage. 

We are calling these next sessions Meta Tauta. This is the Greek word that means after this. As you may recall from Revelation 1:19, Jesus told John to write down three things: 

1. The things which you have seen, Revelation 1 pertaining to John’s vision of Jesus.

2. The things which are, Revelation 2-3 pertaining to the Church Age.

3. The things which shall take place after this (meta tauta), Revelation 4-22 pertaining to the “tribulation.”

We have progressed through this study from defining and understanding what prophecy is and has been through events significantly converging where we can properly understand the age we are in through the lens of Scripture. Now, we will discuss the things that will take place after the Rapture, ie after this…

Our first session here, we will discuss the Throne Room of Heaven where Yahweh is seated with Yeshua Hamashiach (Jesus the Messiah) at His right hand. Revelation stands on its own for a Rapture, so we will start there. 

I. The Open Door of Heaven

a. John sees this after the things of Chapter 3, ie after the Church Age. We have chronology here. 

b. The door is not opened again until Revelation 19:11.

c. Trumpet-like voice calls John up there.

d. He is told that he will now be shown meta tauta. 

e. Understood by most conservative scholars as the Rapture.

Revelation 4:1 starts out with after these things… Well, now you have to use context. What is after what here? What is he talking about? We relate this back to Revelation 1:19 then onto Revelation 2 and 3. John is saying after the churches, this is going to happen. Revelation 4:1 closes with meta tauta. We will now see what will take place after the church age is complete. Amir Tsarfati in Revealing Revelation notes, “the word ‘church’ occurs 19 times in Chapters 2-3, then not again until Chapter 22. Where did we go? Quite simply, we’ve been ‘beamed up.’”

John looked and saw a door that was opened. It is interesting to note this door is not again opened until Chapter 19 when Jesus descends onto earth with the saints to put to an end to all this and set up His Millennial Reign. In between the doors being opened is what we refer to as the Tribulation. John then hears a trumpet-like voice. We covered this in the Rapture notes. 

So in Revelation 4:1, John sees the door opened in heaven which doesn’t get opened again until Chapter 19 at the end of God’s wrath. He is raptured into heaven by a trumpet-like voice (II Corinthians 15:51-58 and I Thessalonians 4:13-18) to be shown meta tauta: the things which shall take place after this, literally after the churches. Remember, the Church of Philadelphia in Revelation 3 Jesus had nothing bad to say about them and were promised to be delivered from the hour of trial (3:10). I believe Revelation 4:1 alone is pre-tribulation, but we will continue…

II. Worship in Heaven

a. John sees God on His throne.

b. Rainbow encircling throne. 

c. 24 thrones with 24 elders sitting. Elders is the Greek word presbyteros which could refer to the church as the word use could refer to those who presided over churches or the Divine Council as in Job. 

d. They are crowned which references the Bema Seat of Christ has occurred. 

e. Seven Spirits of God, Isaiah 11:2.

f. Four living creatures

i. Lion: power and majesty, Book of Matthew emphasizes the royalty of King Jesus

ii. Calf: endurance, Book of Mark emphasizes the servant aspect of Jesus’ ministry

iii. Man: intelligence, Book of Luke emphasizes compassion of the Son of Man 

iv. Eagle: speed in execution of judgement, Book of John magnifies the deity of Jesus

In Revelation 4:2-8, John sees some crazy things in heaven including the Lord sitting on His throne. Jasper and sardius are also in the breastplate of the Jewish high priest (Exodus 28:17-21). He sees a rainbow encircling the throne. We only see up to half of a rainbow on earth. In heaven, all things are complete. We also see rainbows after a storm. Here, John sees it before the coming storm which starts in Chapter 6. 

The 24 elders come with debate on what the number means. Regardless, they are representing believers as they are glorified, crowned, and enthroned. Angels are never crowned, so that eliminates them. This is another reflection of a pre-tribulation rapture as the judgement seat of Christ (Bema seat as it is referred to) has taken place. Here is a good article overviewing this: https://bible.org/article/doctrine-rewards-judgment-seat-bema-christ. 

John then sees the seven lamps of fire which are explained as the seven Spirits of God.  There should be no question what this means as Jesus explicitly stated what the seven lamps were in Revelation 1:20, and it is defined again here. So, in Chapters 1-3 the Holy Spirit is dwelling amongst the churches on earth, and now the Holy Spirit is shown in His completeness in heaven which would mean the church (believers, not a building) is now in Heaven. Again, this is pre-tribulation as well. Nevermind, we have II Thessalonians 2:7-8 explicitly saying the anti-christ cannot be revealed until He who restrains (Holy Spirit with the church) is taken out of the way. This is pivotal as we understand the first seal in Revelation 6 as the anti-christ. We will get to that in our next session.

The description of the four living creatures is quite interesting. We have here the descriptor “like” in reference to them. John doesn’t exactly know what he is seeing, but he is seeing something that is similar to what he knows from an earthly perspective, hence “like.” The descriptors in this section parallels Ezekiel 1. The creatures have eyes all around and are continually in flight worshipping. Angelic/heavenly beings have free will. Unlike Lucifer, these beings have made a choice to continually worship Him who is worthy!

In the remainder of the chapter, we see the worship of the creatures and believers toward Jesus. Again, the believers are crowned and cast them toward the feet of Jesus. My girls often ask if we will know each other in heaven or remember things from earth. My response is always the same: Girls, the glory of the Lord will be so amazing and overwhelming that none of this will be in focus. 

III. Who is Worthy?

a. Seven-Sealed Scroll

i. Title deed to the earth, Psalm 2:8 and Hebrews 1:2

ii. Written on both sides representing full completion. 

iii. Final program is about to begin.

b. John wept as nobody was found worthy

c. Three-fold description of Jesus

i. Lion of the tribe of Judah: Genesis 49:8-10.

ii. Root of David: Isaiah 11:1, 10

iii. Lamb: Isaiah 53: Jesus was as a lamb led to the slaughter. He was the Passover Lamb for all mankind. The Lamb is further explained: 

• Seven horns: perfect power (omnipotent)

• Seven eyes: perfect wisdom (omniscience)

• Seven spirits: perfect presence (omnipresent)

Here in Chapter 5, we see the sealed scroll. This parallels to a will in Roman times which is when John is writing. A will would have seven witnesses put their seal (signet ring in wax) on the parchment. Only the appointed heir has the legal right to open a title deed or will. This scroll referenced in Chapter 5 is the title deed to the earth. It is written on both the front and the back (verse 1) which signifies its full completion, there is no more room on it, nothing more could be added. Again, the final program is about to begin. 

There is no one other than Jesus Himself who is worthy to open the scroll. He receives the scroll from God the Father. Another amazing aspect is we have the Trinity in full view here. We have God the Father sitting on His throne. We have Jesus receiving the scroll. We have the Holy Spirit in completeness. 

IV. More Worship

a. New Song

b. Kings and Priests references back to Revelation 1:6

c. We will reign on the earth: Millennial Reign

d. Everyone will worship

They sang a new song: verses 9-10. Why is Jesus worthy? He was slain thus redeeming us by His blood. Who has he redeemed? Those who have believed out of every tribe, tongue, people and nation. There is no other distinction. The only distinction that we are to view is there are two groups of people on earth. There are those who do not believe in Jesus and will face eternal damnation, and there are those of us who are redeemed as we have placed our trust in Jesus. Those of us who are redeemed should live a life worthy of our calling (Ephesians 4:1) in hopes that others will know Jesus to obtain eternal life. That is it. There is no reconciliation without Christ!

Verse 10 talks about kings and priests to our God. Again, this is the church, and it is in heaven before the tribulation begins. Jesus Himself told us we were kings and priests in Revelation 1:6. Revelation explains itself! There is no mystery of what these terms are. Remember, apocalypse (how we get our word Revelation) means unveiling. Jesus has unveiled His final program. This book doesn’t need to be scary to read or hard to understand. We just need to take it at face value for what it says. 

We see a couple more praises to Jesus in the final verses of this chapter. We see worship of Jesus to “Him who lives forever and ever.” AMEN!! 

The more literal you take your Bible and specifically prophecy here, the more you will fall into the category of what the Bible teaches: a literal Rapture of the church prior to a literal 7 year period where God pours out His wrath upon the world to then usher in a literal 1000 year reign of Christ on earth before all of this is destroyed to usher in a New Heaven and a New Earth. 

The less literal you take your Bible and specifically prophecy here, the more you will fall into the category of not taking the words of the Lord and the prophets literally. Obviously, I lean literal. I believe the Bible is very specific when things are allegorized or described differently such as the use of the English words as if, in the likeness of, like, etc. Literal is how we had so many theologians over the centuries proclaim the truth that Israel would be in their ancestral land prior to the 70th Week. It is how we can see what is going on in the world and know the end is coming very, very soon. 

MARANATHA!!