Synopsis: Revelation 4 opens the throne room of heaven and reveals the central reality of existence: God reigns. John is invited to behold the mystery, beauty, and overwhelming otherness of God’s throne, where divine sovereignty governs all that “must take place.” Around the throne, heavenly beings declare God’s holiness and worthiness, grounding worship in His eternal nature and creative power. These hymns expose our sin, awaken a hunger for holiness, and call us to invest our lives in what is truly valuable. Ultimately, the glory of heaven is not what we receive, but the God before whom all crowns are cast.
Text: Revelation 4
Date: March 29, 2026
Introduction
General Introduction-: This morning after my devotionals, I was glossing over a chapter in a wonderful textbook on the nature of God as I was preparing for our class after service today. I was getting into the weeds of the differences between the false understandings of the Eastern Orthodox Church over the nature of God and delineating that with a true biblical understanding. And then I read this paragraph that deeply moved me. The author of the book transitioned at the end of the chapter and said,
“Hence, given the relative deadness and lack of holy zeal in the churches of the West, instead of worrying over our terminological (or otherwise) differences with the East, we as the people of God in the West need humbly and earnestly to seek to experience the full reality of holy life in an unholy and needy world, by means of a fresh and constant awareness of our union with Christ in and through the Holy Spirit.”
Personal: I don’t know why this hit me so much. But I think it is a word for all of us in this room. We must rightly divide the word of truth. I will never stop teaching truth and guarding us deeply from errors. But Doug’s point here is about the commonality of dead faith. A faith that doesn’t stir the soul. A faith that doesn’t wake us up in the morning with hunger for God. A faith that has no zeal for God’s church, no despair over godlessness in society, no hope for Christ’s return. Might a degree of this relative deadness have crept into your heart?
Context: Well if ever there was a series of chapters that can awaken us from that slumber, the chapters we are approaching today are near the top. Today, we are in Revelation 4, the start of the second of seven cycles in Revelation. And chapter 4 begins this cycle with a radical vision of heaven. While there is a lot happening in this vision, and many details to understand, there is a center to this chapter, and it is the throne that stands in the middle of Heaven. It is around that throne, the throne of God, that everything circulates. The word “throne” is a key word for John in this book. It is used 62 times in the NT, 47 of them in this book. Today we glimpse into heaven, and what we see should stir us, and awaken us, to the wonder of God.
Main Idea: God on his throne is the Sun Around Which Our Entire Existence Revolves. From chapter 4, what do we learn about God’s throne? We see at least three insights.Meaning & Application
THE MYSTERY OF THE THRONE IN HEAVEN
First, let us consider the mystery of heaven.
Revelation 4:1–7 “After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” 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. Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders, clothed in white garments, with golden crowns on their heads. From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder, and before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God, and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal. And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight.”
As we read these opening moments of John’s visitation into the throne room of God, we are struck by the awesome reality of God. The description that John gives of God upon his throne is in many ways copies of the description that the prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel each gave of God when they were ushered into God’s throne room.
Jasper & Carnelion: The one who seated upon the throne has the appearance of Jasper and Carnelian. Modern scholars are uncertain exactly what gem stones John was referring to here, but the point is that what John sees with his human eyes when he looks upon throne of God is a being that shines like magnificent gem stones.
Rainbow: In fact, he goes further and says that arond the throne was a rainbow. A rainbow contains all the colors in the spectrum. This is John’s way of saying that what he was seeing was too grand for human words to describe, and yet it was something like a bright rainbow.
24 Elders (see 5:9 “have redeemed us” not “ransomed people”): Around the throne were 24 elders. There is debate here as to the nature of these elders. Some believe them to be representatives of the human race. I think that is unlikely. Rather these are some kind of senior angelic beings. We do not know their full set of responsibilities. But they wear white, they have crowns upon their heads, and they sit on thrones around God’s throne. They worship him, and in chapter 5 they will be seen again.
Lightning & Thunder: Bright flashes of lightning and peals of thunder surround the throne. It is almost as if approaching God is something like the experience of aproaching an active volcano.
Holy Spirit: The “seven torches of fire” as we have seen twice already in our study of Revelation, are a reference to the seven-fold Spirit of God, or as we typically call him, the Holy Spirit is before the throne.
Sea of Glass: Lastly, around the throne is a sea of glass, so clear and so smooth that it is like crystal. This is not only a symbol of beauty, but of authority. Imagine a king so high and lofty that to approach his throne you must cross a sea of glass.
Cherubim: Lastly, we see four addititional angelic beings. These are mighty angelic beings, each with six wings. One with the face of a lion, the other of an ox, the third of a human, and th fourth of an eagle. A symbol of the four great creatures of all of God’s creation
Heaven (Substance): What I first want us to undersand here is the great mystery of Heaven. It is full of creatures that in any other context would be the things out of nightmares. John has stepped into a world like another dimension to which he knows he does not belong. It is not just a world that is different in quality, but it is different in degree. There in heaven, they are around the physical throne of God, in his presence. Here on Earth we are in a fallen experience, away from God, “East of Eden” as read in Genesis. Our life here is like a translucent ghostly life (CS Lewis), but there it is substnace. Our life here, even as Christians is lived by faith, but there it is the fulness of reality. What a mystery heaven is! What an experience it will be to enter heaven’s gates!
But I want you to notice two particular things in Christ’s words to John in verse 1 when he says:
Revelation 4:1 “…Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.”
“Come Up Here”: First, Christ invites John up with the words, “come up here.” The Apostle John, for all his greatness, had no right to be in that place. It was upon the invitation of Christ that he was permitted into God’s presence. And so it is with each of us. The wonder that is God is accessible to those who are in Christ. The invitation stands upon for each of us today. At the center of the universe is God, in all of his glory and mystery and wonder and greatness. And the great adventure of the human soul is to know him with intimacy, and to spend our eternity learning ever more of his wonder. Only through Christ is this invitation made.
“What Must”: Secondly, I want you to see the second half of that verse “what must take place after this.” It is not what “might take place” or “what hopefully takes place.” It is what “must take place.” Part of the great mystery of God, and the great wonder of God… is that he is God. As God he is sovereign over every event in history. The events recorded in this book will certainly take place because God has decreed it. We refer to this as God’s sovereignty, his ultimate power and authority over everything independent of anything else in all of his creation.
Often Resisted: This is one of the great doctrines of God that is so often resisted. We love the idea of God’s holiness and his love, but we resist the idea of his sovereignty although it is written over nearly every page of the Scriptures. While I cannot give a full sermon on his sovereignty here, I want you to simply consider one simple argument right now. Consider the absurdity of a world where God is not sovereign. If God were not sovereign over his creation, then he would simply be like the demi-gods of old, like Zeus and Hermes. Powerful to effect the world, but not to control. One power among many others. Even if you reduce God’s sovereignty by 1%, then you have created a world where God’s design and desire “might take place” or “probably will take place.” But not a world, where his decree “must take place.”
All History: Whatevents are being referred to? Well it is the rest of the entire book of Revelation. From this point forward John will witness events unfold both in heaven and on Earth. Every time something happens in heaven (a scroll is opened, a trumpet is blown, an angel is sent) great events happen on the Earth. In short, John sees an unfolding of all of human history up through our future in chapters 21 and 22. God reveals this to John, and thereby reveals it to us, in order that we might have great confidence in God’s sovereignty in this life.
Illustration – Clock’s Mechanics: It is a bit like a great clock tower that overlooks a city. To the outside world there is a great minute hand and hour hand that go around and around each day. The average person who drives by the clocktower takes for granted the magnificent inner workings of all the gears that operate behind that hour and minute hand. But indeed there is a room full of gears that on special occasions tourists are allowed to go see how it all fits together. So it is with this world. Heaven is the inner gears, and as they turn they cause actions and reactions down here on Earth.
Application: See the mystery of Heaven…
THE HYMNS AROUND THE THRONE
Second, I want us to consider from this chapter the “Hymns of Heaven.” Good hymns are songs that tell us and teach us something about God’s character. They’re not just emotionally connecting songs, they speak truth, and deal with weighty doctrines about God. In heaven we will sing many hymns. Some perhaps that were written down here on Earth, and some I suspect that are angelic in nature. In this chapter, two different short hymns are spoken by the various angelic creatures around God’s throne, in verse 8 and then in verse 11. We don’t know if they are sung, or simply stated, but they have a poetic nature to them.
Revelation 4:8–11 “And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!” And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and 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.””
Hymn 1 – Holy: The first hymn was spoken in unison by the four creatures we met with various faces. They say “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come.” What they cry out before John, is very similar to what the seraphim cried out when the prophet Isaiah was in the throne room of God, 700 years prior. Back then they sang these words:
Isaiah 6:3 “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”
Holy: Consider this: the very first words John hears when he gets to heaven are “Holy, Holy, Holy.” Three times they repeat the word. It is as if they are saying “the perfection of holiness” or “utter holiness.” This is a declaration of God’s essence, who He is. In a world filled with evil and moral decay, like the world that John was living in, like the world that we live in, John is invited to glance upon the one who is of moral perfection, and dwells in the midst of moral perfection.
Eternality: And it is followed up immediately with the title “who was and is and is to come.” This is language we have already seen in Revelation. Back in Revelation 1:4 and Revelation 1:8 we see this language used to describe God. We have seen that this speaks of God’s eternality, and his unchangingness. God has always been holy. He is holy now. And he always be holy.
Applications: What affect should hymn have on us, as consider that around God’s throne are mighty angelic creatures repeating God’s holiness. I’ll suggest two related applications.
Our Own Unholiness (Guitar): First, truly glimpsing God’s holiness should cause us to tremble at our own unholiness. It’s a bit like my little brother and I, we both play guitar. I play the guitar. And sometimes I like to imagine that I’m pretty good at it. I’ve played since I was a little boy, and I have a number of fun tricks I can do. But then, every once in a while I jam with brother. And the thing about my brother is, he is about 50x better at guitar than I am. And its not until we both have our guitars out, and I watch what he’s doing, that I really get a sense of how good he is, and how bad I am at the guitar. So it is with holiness. The closer we get to God, the more we realize how unholy and unclean we are. He is holy, holy, holy, and we do not belong in his presence.
Hunger for Holiness: But second, reflecting on God’s holiness, should form a desire in us who are believers, who are filled by the Holy Spirit, to “be holy, because God is holy.” We should love holiness and detest unholiness. Unholiness and uncleanness in our own life should become like a rotting stench. Ugh. in the old days they called this piety. And as we chase after piety in this life, holiness in character and action, we give all glory to God because on our own we know are simply unholy.
Hymn 2 – Worthy: The second hymn is a “creation hymn” celebrating God’s work work of creation, but the main theme is God’s worthiness.
Revelation 4:11 “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.”
Why Worthy: “Worth” is a word that describes something’s value. This hymn says that God is so valuable, of such great worth, that he should receive “glory and honor and power.” Why is He is so worthy? Well the truth is 100 different answers could be provided for that question. We could finish this hymn with thoughts of God’s saving grace, with thoughts of God’s benevolence, of God’s love. This particular hymn states that he is worthy because with the breath of his mouth he created all things (on Earth and in heaven), and all things are sustained in their existence through him.
That’s His!: Why is this so significant. Remember the context of the entire book of Revelation. The Apostle John is suffering, likely having endured persecution, and he is writing to a suffering church spread out around the known world. And for a moment he steps out of this world and into heaven, and he stands before the throne of the Almighty. And among the first things he hears the angels sing, is that that world that he lives in, that world that seems so antagonistic to God, that’s his world. He created it. He sustains it. Though it is fallen, and though evil exists, it is His world, and it will accomplish His purpose, and as it does so, it proclaims His worth!
Application: Again, let me give just one application. We all invest in that which we believe to be of the most worth. If you limit the idea of investment to simply financial investment, if you knew Gold was currently underpriced, and that in the future the whole world would see what you already know, you would invest in gold. You’d pump all your investments into it. God is the most worthy. We might say he is infinitely worthy. And therefore it is only the fool who spends his life not investing in Him.
Illustration – Chris P: I had a conversation recently with somebody and his words struck me. This person had recently gone through some big stuff, and as he reflected on all he was going through he said, “For my adult life, without realizing it, I had my career at the center of my priorities and my investments. Christ was then added around that nucleus. But now having endured what I’ve gone through, I’ve realized how foolish I was. Christ must be the center of my life, and my career needs to be built around that.” Yes! And so must every Christian from time to time evaluate their priorities, where they are investing their time, their talents, their treasures. “Worthy are you, our Lord and God!”
The Hymns of Heaven!
THE GLORY OF THE ONE ON THE THRONE
Lastly and briefly I want to look at the glory of heaven. There is one little sentence that is given just before those 24 elders sing their creation hymn of praise. Before they sing, they do something very important.
Revelation 4:10 “They cast their crowns before the throne…”
Why do these angelic elders have crowns. Surely it is visibly display their prominence in the Kingdom of God, their role in God’s economy. Perhaps when we ourselves get to heaven, we will more fully understand who they are and what they have done and we will gasp in awe at the glory of those crowns. And yet, those 24 elders remove their crowns from their brow and place them at the foot of the throne of heaven, and then proceed to sing of God’s worth!
Our Crowns: The scriptures tell us in a number of places that we will receive crowns in heaven of various kinds and various degrees of glory. The Apostle Peter tells us:
1 Peter 5:4 “And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.”
Likewise James writes to those who are suffering in trial:
James 1:12 “Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.”
The Apostle Paul, in a favorite memory verse of mine writes:
2 Timothy 4:7–8 “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.”
Humble Here: How the giving of crowns works when we enter’s heaven’s doors, I do not pretend to know. I suppose that there will be some who may not have seemed anything special here on this earth. No articles and no books were written about them. But they walked deeply with God, and they served him faithfully with the little they had. And I suppose their crowns will be glorious in heaven.
No Jealousy: There will be no jealousy between us. I won’t look at anyone else’s crown and think “I got jipped.” No, in the transparency of heaven, all will be settled, and I will celebrate your crown, and you will celebrate mine.
Responsibilities: I also don’t know how the life of worship works in heaven. I know there are streets, and so it seems that there is society, and community much like on Earth now. And so I suspect that our crowns ahve something to do with our responsibilities in heaven, and our roles in heaven.
Not Just Once: Again, I don’t know many of the details of heaven, for it is a mystery. But if this life is a shadow of that substance, then I can hypothesize about our life of worship up there. Later in Revelation we discover that the final heaven will happen after Christ returns. At that point he will bring the current heaven down to this Earth with him. And we will dwell with him on a renewed Earth, in redeemed and glorified bodies. If you will indulge my imagination for a moment. Perhaps we will make pilgrimmages a few times a year like the people of God did under the Old Covenant. But we’ll have no fear of trouble along the way, or worries of problems we’ve left behind at home. There will be no trouble and no worries at all. And we’ll go to the New Jerusalem where Christ will dwell in such infinite glory that he lights up the sky like the sun. And as we march towards that glory, we’ll gather with redeemed saints from the many nations and tongues, and we’ll converse. And we’ll sing hymns together on our way of the great work of redemption Christ has accomplished through his death on the cross. And perhaps when we arrive, and we’re standing in the intensity of the glory that radiates from Christ our King, our souls and hearts will be so moved with love and gratitude and joy, that the moment we see those elders before His throne removing their crowns, we too will remove ours. We’ll place them at the feet of Christ. And together, angel and human alike, will sing in a choir that takes our breath away. Maybe a new song that one of you is yet to write. Maybe an ancient song angels have been singing for eons. But we will sing
The glory of Heaven, is not the glory of the crowns we receive, but the glory of the one to whom we lay our crowns at his feet.Conclusion
I began today by stating how moved I was at the thought that maybe for some our faith has grown so overly rational and logical, that we have lost the transcendant wonder of God, in heaven, on his throne. I tell you, on the day you see one of those angelic beasts around his throne, you will tremble from head to foot. And they are but creatures around the throne of the Almighty. When you see him, everything you thought you knew will seem like child’s play.
God on his throne is the Sun Around Which Our Entire Existence Revolves
