A Theocentric Vision

*The sermon manuscript below was generated from the recording by AI…

Sometimes in life, there are monumental moments which sort of change the way you live life forever. You can probably think of some in your life. Now, I remember reading a biography of a man who lost a son, and, and the man said from that moment on, he would introduce himself to people and he would say to them, “If you want to know me, you must know that I am a man who buried a son.” It, it had so become part of who he was, this, this toll of losing a son in his early ages, that, that it just sort of defined the rest of his life. And many of us probably have those moments in our life that we look back to. Whether it’s a scar, whether it’s a fond memory, there’s a moment that took place that just changed the way we viewed the world, the way we thought, the way we function.

The, this is really one of those moments for John, isn’t it? Can you imagine that John probably never went to church the same after this? I mean, it’s, it’s one thing to come to church and by faith believe that there is a God in heaven who receives your worship. It’s another thing, I’m sure, to enter into his presence and see him. And John is welcomed into the throne room, and I have no doubt that it must have changed his view of worship and his view of God and his love for him and his delight in him forever. And, and it’s, it’s my prayer for us that the same would happen to us because this word is recorded because it wasn’t just given for John, was it? It was given for you and for me so that we might know our Lord, so that we might see the things by faith that John saw by sight in a vision.

So, let’s consider this vision. I have one overarching point, which is very simply a theocentric vision of heaven, a God-centered vision, a theocentric vision, and I want us to walk through and look at 7 different aspects of this vision, 7 different aspects of this vision, okay?

You see, you can tell a lot You may not have ever thought about this, but when you visit a lot of people like you do when you’re a pastor, you can tell a lot about people by the outlay of their house. It’s not obviously an infallible principle, but you can often tell quite a bit. You know, is the lounge suite directed towards a TV or is the lounge suite directed towards a coffee table? W- where are things around the house? What is given prominence in the home? And a lot of these things will actually send subtle cues to you if you have eyes to observe and think about what is important to that family. It’s not necessarily right or wrong I’m saying, but it’s just what that family prioritizes, what they consider important. If all, all you have in your house is a $50,000 enormous TV and second-hand furniture, I’m not saying it’s right or wrong, but that’s gonna communicate something about the value system in the home, right? And, you know, when, when we come into the vision of heaven, the ordering of the throne room of God does the same thing. It communicates something to us about what truly matters in life, what truly matters in heaven and upon the earth, about a right ordering of our heart’s desire. And so, when we come into this throne room, we must have eyes to see what God wants us to see.

But before we enter into those 7 things, there’s something really important you have to observe before we do that, and this is in verse 2. In verse 2 it says, “I was in the spirit.” Now, that’s a very important Old Testament phrase which is used in Ezekiel about 4 times to refer to moments when the spirit of God takes Ezekiel different places so that he can see things of great importance. It speaks, it’s a word phrase used in the Book of Daniel when Daniel has visions in the night. And what it’s continuously communicating is that this came, this is a reality only by the spirit of God, which is a, a very important reminder for us that you cannot benefit from nor enter into the reality of what we are looking at without the illumination of the Holy Spirit. So, unless the spirit of God opens up your eyes to behold and understand what we’re going to see, you will never see, you will never believe, and instead, you will actually harden your heart, and you will hate God more. Because the things that we believers delight in are a stench to you. But when you are given eyes to see, all of a sudden they just look very different, don’t they?

So, let’s have a look, Lord willing, with spirit-filled eyes at the 7 things contained here. And the first thing you need to see is the first thing John sees, which is a throne with one upon it. Have a look at verse 2 and 3. “At once I was in the spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven with one seated on the throne. And he who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald.”

John, John looks up and he attempts to describe what he sees, and he sees the same thing that’s spoken about in the Old Testament, in Isaiah 6 that we read earlier, in Daniel 7, in Ezekiel 1, 2, and 3. He describes the Almighty, the Ancient of Days, sitting upon his throne. But I wonder if you felt sufficiently, adequately provided with a description. did you pay attention to the description he uses? He says, “I saw one sitting upon a throne” and then he describes him as being jasper, carnelian, and a rainbow of emerald.

Now, I don’t know if you’ve ever considered what that might look like. Have you ever seen a rainbow? I’m sure you all have, children, seen rainbows once in a while. There’s been some great ones over the last few days with the bad weather. Now, how many colors in the rainbow? There’s 7, right? It emerges in between, and of course, the ladies will tell you there’s 53 different colors, but there’s around about 7 colors, right? But John sees a rainbow of one color. So, what does a rainbow of one color look like? And what is a person made of jasper and carnelians? I mean, mo- most of us probably don’t even know what a jasper or a carnelian is. We probably know what an emerald Wh- why, why this weird description? I mean, Ezekiel says, “I saw a man fire on his waist, a belt, he had this on and that.” And so, well, this is a little bit more helpful. John just says, “I saw some shiny stones.” Why? Because John is getting across to us that what he’s trying to describe is indescribable, because God has no form.

This is why every time in the Old and New Testament when someone sees God and they try and describe it, they use words like, “His appearance was like, he was a little bit like, it was something like this.” Why? Because God is spirit. And so, when God wants to give an appearance of himself to someone, in what we call a theophany, an appearance of God, he does so using earthly imagery in order to communicate truth about himself to the person. And so, here, he’s communicating to John his splendor, his glory, his wonder, his indescribable nature. He’s showing that he is not just a pagan god, but he is the Lord of Lords and King of Kings. He is enthroned upon high. And even to have a vision of God is an incredible condescension.

Do you know what a condescension is? When someone condescends something to you, it’s like lowering something down to your level. Cal- Calvin puts it really beautifully, he says, “The word of God is like God’s baby speech to us. you know, we just got a new baby in the home. What do you do when you talk to a baby?” Oh, sweetie. It’s so nice. Oh, you’re so cute. Oh, coochie, coochie.” That, that is God speaking to us in the Bible. Now, we look at the Bible and go, “This book’s profound, right? It’s way over my head.” And God’s, God, Calvin says, it’s just baby speech, because God is so ineffably wondrous that He must lower Himself down in order to show Himself in this brilliance, which reminds us of the greatness of God, doesn’t it? God is so splendid that to behold him in a vision of the spirit requires Him to use metaphor to communicate Himself to us.

Do you comprehend the greatness of God? I hope you say, “No.” And this is, this is so marvelous for us, because if God was, was finite like us and understandable and limited, well, eternity would be very boring, because you’d very soon run to the end of knowing God, wouldn’t you? But brothers and sisters, when we’ve been there 10,000 years and it feels like just a day has gone by, you will not have comprehended a fraction of the glory and the greatness of God. And you will spend all of eternity marveling at a being so profound, so glorious.

But this, this also communicates to us that the centerpiece that God is in the universe. You know, for a long time, humans thought that the Earth was the center of the creation, right? the sun goes around us, everything go And it does feel that way when you’re sitting on planet Earth. And, and we thought that we were the very center, and, and then we started realizing, “Well, actually there’s a lot more out here than what we thought.” And actually, it turns out the Earth is spinning and the Earth is moving, and, and just of our little set of planets, the sun is in the middle, and we don’t even go perfectly around it. We, oh, we started widening our vision. Well, one of the other errors we can make is to think that creation is the center of existence, that everything that God made is the center. But brothers and sisters, God is the centerpiece of civilization, the centerpiece of the universe. When you come into the heavens, what sits at the center is not the plan of God, but God Himself. And everything comes out from Him in concentric circles. You know, circle after circle after circle, because everything finds its purpose and meaning in our Lord and our God. You exist by His will and for His glory.

We also see that it means He is centerpiece in sovereignty, too. Everything happens according to His will, which brings us great comfort when we’re facing the wrath of the world, doesn’t it? You see, when we, when we see the thrones of this world, it can be easy to feel overwhelmed by them. Maybe not for you and I who live in peace and comfort, but when you’re running for your life and your churches are being burnt down around your ears and you’re being martyred for your faith, it can be tempting to think that the centerpiece of your existence is some Gestapo down the road. And what God wants us to understand in this word, what Christ wants us to understand in this word, is that the world is not upon the throne, but our God is. And the Ancient of Days suffers no rivals.

And so firstly, we see the throne of God in the center, this indescribable being.

And the second thing we see is a church gathered around it. And so, in verse 4, we’re told, “Around the throne were 24 thrones, and seated on the thrones were 24 elders clothed in white garments with golden crowns on their heads.”

Now, as you might imagine, there’s lots of debate about who these elders are. We’re not gonna busy ourselves with all of the different arguments. I think the best argument is that these 24 elders represent the 12 tribes of Israel, the Old Testament church, and the 12 apostles of the New Testament church. In other words, what John is seeing is the church represented, Old Testament and New Testament church, gathered together around the throne of God, all facing not one another, not outwards, but inwards, right, towards God. Directed towards their God, 24 thr- thrones. And they’re robed in white garments, and they’ve got crowns upon their heads. Why? Because they’re dressed in righteousness. They’re dressed in what Revelation 19 will say in the good works of the saints, and they’ve received their crown of life that Revelation 3 talks about. Jesus says to one of the churches, “If you, if you persist, if you fight to the end, I will give you the crown of life.” Or it might be the crown of glory the Apostle Paul talks about. He says, “I fought the race. I’ve fought the fight, I’ve run the race, and now there’s a crown of glory waiting for me.”

But what, what, what’s the church the picture of? It’s the picture of the church that’s made it home, the church that has faithfully maintained its witness through life and through death, and has been gathered into the presence of her God. They’re not in the center, and yet, do you notice, they’re mentioned first, after God? It’s striking, because they’re not second and center, they’re outside the beasts, they’re outside other things, and yet they’re mentioned before the beasts, the cherubim. They’re mentioned immediately after the throne of God in order to highlight that God’s chief work is among his people. He created all things, he created all image-bearers, but he specially set his love upon his people, didn’t he? He specially worked a plan of redemption for his people which he didn’t work for the rest of creation.

It highlights for us God’s affection for the praise of his church. It highlights that you especially, out of all people, owe worship, adoration, and service to your God. And isn’t it abominable that there would be people that would say, “I love God, but I don’t have to obey him. I don’t have to serve him.”? Or, “I love God, but I don’t have to go to church to worship him.” That’s a contradiction in terms, isn’t it? Here’s the church gathered for one purpose, to worship their God. And yet there are Christians who say it’s not that important. It’s, it’s the centerpiece of everything you do every day of the week. Th- the thrones are not just set down on the Lord’s Day, are they? Though we know Lord’s Day worship is very important and especially blessed, yet the thrones are there perpetually because the church exists for the worship of God 24/7.

And I guess it’s a challenge for us to consider, isn’t it, as Christians? Are we living now for what we will do then? I mean, if you don’t want to worship God now, I can assure you, you don’t want to go to heaven. If you don’t want to live for the glory of God now, you’re not going to enjoy heaven. You will hate heaven. And those who don’t want to glorify God now will not go to heaven, because they will say, “Lord, Lord,” and Jesus will say, “I never knew you. You wanted nothing to do with me on Earth. Why would I welcome you into my paradise?”

And so, second, we see these, these thrones of the church gathered around the one in the center.

Thirdly, we, we see, or we see and hear with John sounds, sounds of power, judgment, and wrath. Have a look in verse 5. “From the throne came flashes of lightning and rumblings and peals of thunder.” You might think to yourself, “Okay, is there a thunderstorm in heaven?” the earthquakes in heaven. It’s interesting. This is in almost every theophany in the Old Testament where someone has a vision like this: Daniel, Ezekiel, Isaiah. Thresholds shake, smoke pours forth, lightning cracks, thunder sounds. When Moses is up the mountain, it’s engulfed in smoke, and lightning, and rumblings, and earthquakes, and fire. It’s a terrifying thing to be brought into the presence of God.

W- what is going on here? It, it’s repeated throughout the Book of Revelation at the key hinge turning points in the book. So, you remember I said to you last time that there are these sets of sevens that sort of define the outlay of the book? At every turning point when a seven is finished, there is an outbreaking of thunder and lightning and judgment, and the wrath of God is poured out, and the people of God are settled in peace. It’s an expression of God’s wrath, judgment, and power over all things.

And what’s really striking about this picture is you don’t see anyone falling down in fear. Did you notice that? I mean, could you imagine being there? Earthquakes, and lightnings, and thunder, and the whole place is shaking under the power of God. I mean, wouldn’t you be like Isaiah, chucking yourself on the ground, “Woe is me.” But the elders aren’t doing that. The creatures aren’t doing that. All of creation that we see in Chapter 5 isn’t doing that. No one’s doing Why? Because they have nothing to fear of the judgment of God, because they’ve been redeemed. They’ve been reconciled. They’re at peace with God. Those who have need to fear the judgment of God are not present in the throne room of God. Because as we’ll see in the coming chapters, they’ve been removed from God’s presence and cast into a lake of fire, never to emerge again. They exist and live in the presence of the flashings of lightning and rumbles and peals of thunder of God, and yet away from the people of God.

And so, we see and hear the sounds of power. The heavenly host is not concerned.

And then we see the presence of the Spirit of God. Have a look in verse 5, at the second half there. “Before the throne were burning 7 torches of fire, which are the spirits of God.” You, you might ask yourself, what are these 7 spirits? Do we have, you know, the, the three and the trinity, and there’s one of those 7, like Jesus, you know, is God and man, maybe? No. 7 is a picture, we know Biblically, of total number. It’s a full number, everything included in it. It’s whole, it’s perfect. And, and it’s the picture of the full Spirit of God without measure, standing before the presence of God.

Why? Well, burning is a torch, and, and you might recall some of the imagery we’ve run into so far in Revelation 1, 2, and 3, when torches, and fires, and lamps have been spoken about. What has it been primarily talking about? It’s been talking about the testimony and the witness of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, remember? And so, what’s being communicated to us is that present in the mind of God, in the throne room of God, is the Spirit of God at work in the testimony of his people. That his people burn brightly by, not themselves, but by the Spirit of God. That when we, the church, go out into this world, into our workplaces, into our families, wherever you go, you go with the Holy Spirit filling you so that you might live for this one. Because this holy God sends you forth, and this holy God equips you, and this holy God enables you to do what he’s sent you to do. He, he pours out blessing, we’re told in the first chapter. and effectual power. We’re told in the letters that he makes alive. He does the work of regeneration, doesn’t he? And he stirs and revives the church.

The spirit of God is present there.

But then the next thing we see is a crystal sea. Have a look at 6. “Before the throne there was, as it were,” you know, kind of, I guess, “a sea of glass like crystal.” Now, you might recall the image in Ezekiel that this is based on. Ezekiel looks up and he sees these 4 incredible creatures, which are what we’re gonna look at shortly. These 4 incredible creatures, and upon the creatures was something like a sea of glass with a throne on it. Why a sea of glass? Why not just a crystal floor? Why a sea of glass? Well, you, what you need to understand is that in Old Testament theology, the sea is the representation of uncontrolled evil. You see, you can never control the sea, can you? We can put amazing warning signs out there that tell us that a tsunami’s coming, and we’ve done that, right? But you know what you can’t do? Stop a tsunami coming. I don’t know if you’ve ever tried it as a child. You know, you go in the ocean, you’re a small child, you go in the ocean and you stand in the waves, and you go, “I’m gonna stand still and not move.” And even if you’re strong enough to not move, what happens? The sand gets sucked out underneath your feet and you slowly sink, and then you fall over. Why? Because the sea is far more powerful than you.

And, you know, if you ever go fishing with Rob, you’ll find out that on the West Coast, it’s, it’s never still. It’s never flat. It’s never crystal-like. It’s always up and down. Some of our members found this out the hard way and got motion sickness. But, you know, if you go out on the East Coast, every once in a while you go out there and it will be like glass. There won’t be a ripple. I’ve had this on my kayak. And you sit there and it’s just like a flat, flat pan everywhere you look. It’s like someone has come along and just squished the sea. And, and you see, what we’re getting given the picture of is that before the throne of God, God has taken everything that represents evil and he has squashed. He has taken the ragings of the ocean of evil, and he has made it still. Like it says in Psalms, “Be still.” This is what God says to the enemies. He says, “Be still and know that I am God.” And that’s what God’s done. Finally, after all of the raging of the evil one against his church, God has silenced them. God has stilled them.

And the 6th thing we see is 4 living creatures. They’re odd looking. Have a look at the second half of verse 6. “Around the throne on each side” So, on the corners. uh, are 4 living creatures full of eyes. They’ve got eyes in front and behind. A little bit further down in verse 8, we’re also gonna just find out that they’ve got eyes all around and within them. I’m not sure how he knew there were eyes within them, but he knew somehow. So, they’ve got eyes all over them. “The first living creature is like a lion, the second like an ox, the third with the face of a man, and the 4th with an eagle in flight. The 4 of them have 6 wings.” It’s, this is a combination of Ezekiel, Daniel, and Isaiah, all merged together into one.

What’s it communicating to us? Well, this is the representation of all of creation, isn’t it? What does a lion represent but the wild animals of the world? What does an ox represent but the tame animals, the beasts that we use? What does an eagle represent but the birds of the air and a man representing all of humanity? And what do these beasts exist for, these creatures? They exist to sing, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come.”

What- what are these creatures and why are they there? These creatures represent all of creation that is created for the praise of God. All of it. There’s not one iota of the universe that was not set there purely for the purpose of declaring, “Holy, holy, holy.” The problem is, we’ve just lost the ability to hear it. In the Garden of Eden, I guarantee you, Adam and Eve would have heard the echo of this chorus bouncing upon every tree and every blade of grass. But you see, our sinful hearts have detuned our ears to be able to hear the song of creation.

But here’s the saddest part. 3 of these creatures, now, in our time, 3 of these creatures continue to sing this song, but one of them doesn’t. The beasts of the field still give glory to God. As the birds fly through the sky, they declare the glory of God. As the wild animals do what God has established them to do, they declare his praise. But what does humanity do? That which was chiefly given the image of God to live for the glory of God, instead has rebelled against its creator, thrown out his glory, set up their own thrones and declared, “I am God. I deserve praise. I deserve glory.”

What do you think all of the wars on this world are about? They’re about little kings wanting to be the king upon the throne. And little kings get envious of other kings and seek to obtain their throne so that they might be holy, holy, holy. And isn’t it an abomination that he who loved them, made them, and poured breath into their lungs, and they took that very breath to sing their own song? Instead of singing, “Holy, holy, holy,” they sing self-glory, self-glory, self-glory. And don’t we see it everywhere? We work with these people. We spend time with these people. We do it ourselves. We remember doing it ourselves.

And yet, here’s the incredible thing, brothers and sisters, the self-same God would send his son to save that creation, to redeem that creation, so that which Romans 8 says, “That which groans inwardly waiting for redemption,” would finally be set free. And a day is coming, and this is part of the story of Revelation, a day is coming when this creation will be set free from sin, s- free from bondage, that the univi- verse might declare glory, glory, glory, holy, holy, holy once again.

But there’s one thing to see, one more. It’s the seventh, and it’s an ever-ringing chorus. This isn’t one so much to see as to hear. And so, these creatures, they cry out, “Holy, holy, holy,” and we’re told in verse 9 that whenever the creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who’s upon the throne, who lives forever and ever, the 24 elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and they worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying, “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will, they existed and were created.”

It’s, it’s the, it’s the chorus that’s been sung since the beginning. It’s, it’s a responsive hymn. You know what a responsive hymn or psalm is? One person sings one part and then another person sings the other part. We do this with hymns sometimes. The, the, the angels, these creatures, these cherubim, whatever they are, they cry out, “Holy, holy, holy!” And the elders who are seated upon their throne, it’s almost like they go, “That’s right. He is holy. What am I doing sitting before him?” And they jump off their throne and they cast down their crown of glory that’s been given to them by God and they fall down upon their faces, and they say, “Worthy, worthy, worthy.” And then, and then the, the elders collect their crown, and they sit back upon their thrones again. And the cherubim look at God and they say, “Holy, holy, holy!” And the elders say, “Oh, he is!” And they cast their crowns and they fall down and they say, “Worthy, worthy, worthy!” for millennia upon millennia, the responsive hymn of God goes on with the creatures of the universe declaring his holiness. And the people of God saying, “Amen. He is worthy. He is worthy, for he creates and sustains all things. He does all things well.”

You need to listen to the song of the universe, brothers and sisters, and it needs to be your own song. This is what creation was made for. This is where we’re heading, and this is where we are, because this is not a future psalm. This is not a future song. This is a present song. This is a song going on in the presence of God right now. And when we join our voices together, we join our voices to their song. We sing, “Holy, holy, holy. Worthy, worthy, worthy.” And we live those words too, don’t we? And these 7 things come together to show us a very theocentric vision. It’s all about God, is it- isn’t it? No one really cares about the elders, though it’s wonderful when they’re there. No one really cares about the creatures, though they’re incredible. What is everyone there for? They’re there for the Lord. Everyone is centered upon God.

And brothers and sisters, that’s the point of the vision. It’s theocentric, because God is worthy of all glory, praise, and honor. Your whole life is worthy of all praise and glory to him. This is why Paul says we are to be living sacrifices of worship.

And I think we can, we can pull 4 simple lessons from this, 4 simple applications for us from this.

Firstly, since the universe is centered upon the throne, and the one who’s seated upon it, should our lives not be absorbed with the Lord our God? Now, I’m not saying you need to be Anthony the Hermit and go out into a cave. What I, what I mean is when you’re at work, who are you working for? When you’re disciplining your children, who are you disciplining them for? When you’re loving your wife or your husband, when you go out on a date together, who are you doing it for? You exist for the glory of God. And so your life should be centered upon the Lord. This should raise up a real heavenly mindedness in us, shouldn’t it? So Paul says, “Be heavenly minded.” Why? Because if you’re too earthly minded, you’re no good for the Kingdom of God. You’re of no use. But the more heavenly minded you are, the more use you are to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Secondly, it shows us that the history of the world is in the sovereign control of And that’s a great comfort to us, isn’t it? When the, when the sinful and evil waves of this world, and the curse of this world, sickness and affliction break upon the shore of our life, we can know that there’s one who’s in control of all of it. We can know that these things don’t happen by chance, but they happen according to the sovereign will of God. We can know that though we be struck down with the most severe affliction, yet by his will, all things were created, and by his will, all things are sustained, which includes the very sickness that plagues you. You will not be sick one day longer or shorter than what he sovereignly wills.

Thirdly, you need to know that the church has a very special place in this world in the mind of God. We can be tempted to be very ho-hum about the church, can’t we? A- and to view the church just as like the housing area for us to go to worship on Sunday. God loves his church. Oh, and I’m not talking about RBC, though I am including RBC. I’m talking about the invisible church, the 24 elders church. God loves his people. He loved them so much he gave up his one and only son. And if you’re a believer here today, that includes you. You are loved of God, not by chance, but by intention.

There’s one more thing that we skipped over, and that is, I wonder if you noticed who brought John into this vision. Who opened the door? Have a look at fur- the first verse. “After this, I looked and behold a door standing open in heaven.” We don’t know who put it there, we don’t know who opened it, but notice who summons him to come through. “The first voice, which I heard speaking to me like a trumpet,” which is Jesus in chapter one, “said, ‘Come up here.’” Why is this important? Because the only way to enter heaven is to come through the door.

Do you remember those words in John 10? “I am the good shepherd,” he says, and then he says, “I am the door to the sheepfold.” No one enters the sheepfold but by me. If anyone tries to enter but by me, he is a thief and a robber. Yeah. Do you remember his words in John Chapter 14? “I am the,” what? “The way,” “I am the way to the Father. No one can know the Father except through me,” he says.

Uh, what we’re seeing here is that in movie form. There’s a door, and the one that opens it, and the one who beckons to come through is Christ. Because all the while we live on this side of glory, Christ stands by the door and he says, Come. Repent and live. Repent, for the Kingdom of God has come. And so this serves as an invitation today to any of you that have not yet come. Mm-hmm. If you have not by faith entered into heaven in the Lord Jesus Christ, Christ now summons you. He says to you, “Come up here, and I will, I will” What will he do? He’ll give you eternal life. He’ll grant you to join the everlasting song.

Have you come, brothers and sisters? Friends? Family? Have you come? I beg you to come. With all the authority of Christ, come and believe.

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