Sermon Text: Revelation 4:1-8
Below is a sermon manuscript from June 29, 2025. Watch the sermon here.
Introduction
Have you ever seen something or been somewhere and it produced immense awe? I remember when we took our kids up Mount Nittany for the first time. We paused at the overlook and they just sat there and stared. Some sights just need to be soaked up. Pictures don’t do justice. They can’t capture the depth or produce the same feelings. A good example is all the grainy pictures that will be rolling in at the end of the week. Fireworks don’t transfer.
If it’s hard to capture something like a firework, even with all the technology we have at our disposal, how could someone in the first century possibly capture for us the magnitude of God’s beauty and wonder? God, in his wisdom, gave us the genre of apocalyptic literature that serves this purpose. It’s a genre that is filled with symbols, metaphors, and similes. It excites the imagination and stirs the senses. In this book, churches are described as lamps on lampstands, Jesus as a lamb, and Satan as a dragon. Because of the genre, it’s fitting to start out this series with G.K. Chesterton’s famous line,
“And though St. John the Evangelist saw many strange monsters in his vision, he saw no creature so wild as one of his own commentators.”
God Sits Enthroned
In this passage, John provides a picture of God’s glory and splendor on His throne. One repeated comment I have heard as I talked with people about this passage this week is “Can you imagine that experience for John, what he must have seen and gone through?” The amazing part for us is that we have the exact words that we need from his experience. Indeed, words cannot fully grasp who God is or what John saw, but they can give us a glimpse, and we can be assured that this is exactly what God wants for us to hear. As we see at the beginning of this fantastic book,(Rev. 1:3) “Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.[1].” Let us keep these words in mind throughout this series. It can be tempting to want to know exactly what every detail means, but the reality is that some details are left to speculation. There are often multiple biblical truths that can be illustrated, and we strive to grasp them. But it’s also important to keep in mind that the dominant and key images and themes are clear. We quoted Allistar Begg in our last series, “The main things are the plain things and the plain things are the main things.” This is true in our section this morning as well.
God is the sovereign ruler
The dominant theme in this passage and one that is dominant throughout the book of Revelation is the throne. It’s a word that occurs 62 times in the New Testament, and 47 of them are in the book of Revelation. Even without being familiar with Biblical usage, many ideas come into our minds when we think of thrones. We think of power, ruling, and monarchs. In Scripture, the throne has similar connotations; it is associated with the sovereign rule of a King. Here we have God sitting on the throne. It is a picture of his sovereign rule over all of creation.
Psalm 47:7-8
For God is the King of all the earth;
sing praises with a psalm!
8 God reigns over the nations;
God sits on his holy throne.[2]
William Hendrickson writes,
“The purpose of this vision is to show us, in beautiful symbolism, that all things are governed by the Lord on the throne.[3]”
The one who rules is the ruler over time itself. There is a voice like a trumpet coming to John. The trumpet sound is associated with an announcement, and here the announcement is of what is about to come. This echoes back to Revelation 1:10, where John heard a voice like a loud trumpet and was in the Spirit. That voice was accompanied by a vision of Jesus.
God’s rule is settled
Think also of the idea of God sitting on the throne. We know that God is spirit. He does not have a body. Yet we are given this picture, why? The idea of seated on the throne connotes being settled. Think of how the book of Psalms begins, it begins with describing the blessed man as one who…
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;[4]
This escalating image describes how distant they are, there is a distinction between walking alongside someone and standing there, even more sitting there and soaking it in. In contrast, the righteous are described as being planted firmly. God is seated on high, firmly planted in his righteous rule. This image of God seated on high in his righteousness is described in the second Psalm, which describes the raging of the nations in contrast with God, who sits in the heavens and laughs. Listen to the words of Psalm 2.
God’s throne is central to everything else
In this passage, we see a reference to the 24 elders. This is an image that has been debated in the history of the church. Many say this represents mankind and particularly God’s people. The 24 represents the twelve tribes of Israel and the 12 apostles. Others say that these are angels, representing the divine council around the throne, as referred to in 1 Kings 22:6, Psalm 89:6, Daniel 7, and other verses. The imagery of white clothes is shared by Christ, angels, and humans in the book of Revelation. Crown is a reward for faithful Christians in the book, but it also refers to an exalted status. Revelation 7 and 14 seem to distinguish the elders from humans, which might tip the scales. Another that may distinguish people and the elders is Revelation 5:9-10. It says there, “you have ransomed or purchased ‘people’ and ‘you have made them.” This distinguishes the elders from people for whom Christ came. But some translations, like the KJV, say “you have ransomed us.” This is because they are coming from different text traditions. Here is where we can see how a variant, like we discussed in our last series, can impact our interpretation. At the end of the day, nothing is lost whether we interpret the 24 as people or angels.
While this is a little murky, what is clear is that the 24 are around the throne. They are not central; God’s throne is. What is amazing in this image, as well, is that it sits at the center of everything else that surrounds it. Think about it. We see the phrase “we see repeated uses of around the throne, from the throne, before the throne.” It is evident that the throne is central and everything else is finding its place in relationship with it.
Nicolaus Copernicus was the first modern astronomer to deny that the earth is the center of the universe. He taught that the earth actually revolves around the sun. This view was very controversial, because almost everyone at that time believed that the earth was the center of everything. The sun, moon, stars, and planets all appeared to revolve around the earth.
Today we know that Copernicus was right: the earth is not the center of the universe. The universe contains much more than just our solar system or even our galaxy. In fact, scientists consider our galaxy, the Milky Way, to be actually rather small in comparison to others. There are many solar systems and galaxies beyond our own.
However, though the universe may not have a physical center, it does have a governmental and spiritual center. John says in Revelation 4 that at the center of all the universe there sits a throne. The universe is not earth-centered or sun-centered, but God-centered. [5]
Do you know what this means? It means you are not the center of the universe! Sorry to bust your bubble. There are some who act like they are; maybe you fall into this trap as well. But then you realize – wait, the world doesn’t actually revolve around me! We recently went on a summer vacation where we spent time with extended family. What is interesting about our family dynamics is that our kids are much older than their cousins.
It’s natural. Small children require a lot of attention. You need to always be watching them. Your world, in a certain sense, revolves around their needs. But when families are combined, there are often competing centers. This can be a recipe for chaos. The solution? Is it to promote your center as the ultimate and bully everyone into accepting it? No, it’s actually to realize that none of us is the center, but that we are accountable to the One who is. This frees us to selflessly love one another. To defer to each other’s needs. To seek to glorify God by doing this.
God Is Glorious
God is glorious in beauty
One thing that should take us back, even as we read this account, is the beauty of the imagery. The colors, the brilliance. John can scarcely take it in, words seem insufficient to grasp the magnitude of the beauty that is before him. This is purposeful. It is one thing to examine the implications and what the stones and colors represent; this is appropriate, though we still may not have a full grasp, but we need to be careful in the midst of things that can be speculative, not to miss the obvious point of the splendor.
Still, even as we think about and contemplate the colors and arrangement, it moves us to wonder and meditation about the God who is greater than we can comprehend.
Jasper may be similar to a diamond, though there could be other hues. Revelation 21:11 describes it as crystal clear.
John then looks again and says that this One is like a sardine (carnelian) stone, that is, an opaque red stone that reflects light in all hues of red. Both these stones were among the precious gems on the high priest’s breastplate (Ex. 28:17, 20). They are also among the foundation stones of New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:19–20).[6]
They are associated together in Scripture to signify the impressive value and beauty of what they describe.
God is Glorious is power
We see flashes of lightning and rumblings and peals of thunder. This is meant to highlight the power of the One who sits on the throne. Have you ever been caught in a thunderstorm? Just this week we were. The power.
There is a rightful fear of God that we should have. This might seem counterintuitive. Isn’t God a God of love? Yes, but he is also a holy and just ruler. If we miss this, we are prone to jeopardize our Christian joy. How does fear of God lead to joy? In two ways, first because there is an inverse relationship between our fear of God and our fear of man. When we have an inflated understanding of the power of man over us, it can rule us. We no longer act according to what is best but according to what is best received by those whom we fear. This leads to a compromise that can harm us and others. But, the second reason that God doesn’t jeopardize Christian joy is that when we fear God we are fearing the One who made us and knows what’s best for us. We are no longer captive to people’s ever-changing opinions, but we are accountable to the one who is the same today, yesterday, and forever. Remember the words of Jesus in Matthew 10:28,
“And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.[7]”
God is Glorious in mercy
Throughout this passage, we encounter a God who inspires awe and wonder, and if we understand the images correctly, it should instill a healthy fear of the power of who this God is. It is this power, coupled with God’s holiness, that should cause us to tremble. How can we approach so glorious a God? How can we go near his presence and remain unscathed? The angels have wings that guard them from this glory.
The rainbow is not to be displayed as an affirmation of a lifestyle, but it is given as a sign that God’s justice has been satisfied. That the God who cannot turn a blind eye to sin has provided a way for sinners to be reconciled through Jesus. As Joel Beeke puts it,
As a symbol, the rainbow tells God’s children in every age that the storm is past and the judgment over, for God’s wrath has expended itself by falling on Christ…just as storm clouds and sunshine are needed for a rainbow to appear, so the storm of God’s anger and the smile of His love have met at Calvary so that sinners might be saved…That is the significance of the rainbow that encircles the great throne.[8]
The holiness and justice of this throne threaten judgment on all sin. But a rainbow encircles this throne as a sign of God’s promised grace and mercy to sinners.[9]
While God should be respected and honored on the basis of who He is, the Christian serves and lives for God not merely out of fear of being punished for wrong but out of love for God.
God is Glorious in bringing shalom
What are we to make of this sea of glass? The sea in the Ancient Near East is associated with chaos. In Biblical usage, it also brings with it the connotations “of unbelief and rebellion in the world against God.”[10] We see in the book of Revelation, in particular. In Revelation 13:1, the first beast arises out of the sea. But what do we have here? We have a sea of glass. A sea that has been calmed. Just as Jesus spoke and calmed the sea, remember in Mark 4:39, when Jesus and the disciples were on the boat and they were afraid, and Jesus was sleeping. What did they do? They ran to him and said, “Don’t you care about us! We are perishing.” What did Jesus do? Mark 4:39 tells us, “Then Jesus got up and rebuked the wind and the sea. ‘Silence!’ He commanded. ‘Be still!’ And the wind died down, and it was perfectly calm.” The disciples had no need to fear because the raging waters were no match for their creator. Chaos turned to calm, rebellion to obedience. Here, too, we have around the throne a picture of that perfect calm. God brings peace to what is often associated with chaos. This gives us hope. Today, too, we may cry out, “Don’t you care about us! We are perishing!” Yet we worship a God who is surrounded by calm waters. Perhaps the issue is that we are centering ourselves on the ups and downs of life instead of the One who transcends them all. One day, every wrong will be made right; one day there will be peace on earth as there is in heaven.
God is to be worshipped
What else do we see in this scene? We see God worshipped by magnificent creatures. These creatures are described as being all around the throne, on each side. The imagery is almost chaotic as it awakens our senses. They are full of eyes, and have faces like an ox, a lion, a man, and an eagle. They have wings, and the wings have eyes. The idea of eyes around and within in apocalyptic literature points to their ever-knowing and watchfulness. The faces may reflect various attributes like knowledge and strength. Or, I think it’s more likely that they represent all of creation. Birds, tame animals, wild animals, and humanity. All giving praise, non-stop, day and night, around the throne.
As you contemplate the image of the lion, with eyeballs, and with wings.
“You are in the realm of mixed metaphor. You are not to draw a creature of that. That would be a big mistake. You are to understand the symbol-laden power of each contribution to the total picture.”[11]
What does all this mean? That God is worthy to be worshipped in his glory. This is exactly the picture that we see.
We see a scene of worship, like Isaiah’s vision in Isaiah 6, where God is worshiped as holy, holy, holy. Repeating this phrase three times emphasizes it. There is no bold text or caps lock; instead, repetition begins with us and tells us what is important. God being declared as holy three times should inform us of his character and nature. He is holy in that he is completely separate. He is the uncreated one; everything else is creation. But God is distinct not only in his being but in his moral perfection. He is completely set apart from sin. He is the almighty and powerful God. He is the God who has no beginning and will have no end. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. God is being worshipped by his creation, recognizing Him for who He is. This is important for us to recognize. God is not a bigger version of us, He is who He Is. He is worshipped by us, recognizing that fact and receiving His self-revelation to us, not by us fashioning Him in our image.
God Invites Us To Come
One aspect that cannot be missed here is that John is invited to come and see. There is an invitation to come and look. This is interesting isn’t it? There are similar allusions in this passage as there is with Moses in Exodus. Within that context, Moses desires to see God but God tells him that he cannot look upon him and live but gives him a glimpse accompanied by a voice that describes God’s character. But here we have something different. We have God inviting John to come and see.
Psalm 34:8
Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good!
Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!Psalm 27:1
One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.
Right now, we can we have a relationship with the God who reigns on high? How? Because before the throne are the seven torches of fire – these represent, John tells us, the seven spirits of God. Again, this is a symbol. It’s a symbol of the fullness of the Spirit of God. We are taught in Scripture that Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to be with us and guide us. The Holy Spirit also unites us to Christ.
Paul puts it this way in Ephesians 2:18: “For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.” It is by the blood of Christ and the fellowship of the Spirit that we have access to the Father. As[12]
There is a sense that right now, as we worship, we are joining in the praise around the throne. We join the heavenly chorus.
[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Re 1:3.
[2] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Ps 47:7–8.
[3] As quoted in Richard D. Phillips, Revelation, ed. Richard D. Phillips, Philip Graham Ryken, and Daniel M. Doriani, Reformed Expository Commentary (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2017), 167.
[4] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Ps 1:1.
[5] Joel R. Beeke, Revelation, ed. Joel R. Beeke and Jon D. Payne, The Lectio Continua Expository Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage Books, 2016), 177–178.
[6] Joel R. Beeke, Revelation, ed. Joel R. Beeke and Jon D. Payne, The Lectio Continua Expository Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage Books, 2016), 178.
[7] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Mt 10:28.
[8] Joel R. Beeke, Revelation, ed. Joel R. Beeke and Jon D. Payne, The Lectio Continua Expository Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage Books, 2016), 183–184.
[9] Joel R. Beeke, Revelation, ed. Joel R. Beeke and Jon D. Payne, The Lectio Continua Expository Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage Books, 2016), 184.
[10] Richard D. Phillips, Revelation, ed. Richard D. Phillips, Philip Graham Ryken, and Daniel M. Doriani, Reformed Expository Commentary (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2017), 173.
[11] From D.A. Carson Sermon, ‘Vision of a Transcendent God.’
[12] Joel R. Beeke, Revelation, ed. Joel R. Beeke and Jon D. Payne, The Lectio Continua Expository Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage Books, 2016), 189.
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